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[Alexandr Korol]

that even when they scold us, it’s actually their love, their care. And you watch the film, and afterward you pick up your phone and want to call your dad. And that’s how movies affect us, and music, and everything really — including now social media, certain posts. I’m very cautious about that, that’s why I’m not on social media — so that nothing unnecessary influences me. Of course, I do want to be influenced, but I want to choose it myself, not when it’s imposed. So if I want to, I’ll open a book or turn on a film — I’ll choose it myself. Likewise, if a person is searching for something, wanting a new perspective from the outside — well, there you go, they find my book, read it, and their perspective shifts, they begin to see life from another angle. And then they start drawing conclusions like, “Oh, why was I so harsh in that?” or “Oh, why did I drop out of school?” — they start having thoughts. The film didn’t have the main character knock on the screen and say, “Hey, go there.” And my book doesn’t say, “Hey, go there,” either. The person reflects on their own. I wrote about Petersburg, but I never said in the book that everyone should live in Petersburg. Yet still, for some reason, after reading my books where Petersburg was mentioned, many people suddenly wanted to go there — some for the summer, some moved there, some went to study there. But that was their own choice. I’m very careful about that — very careful. So can my book change someone’s life, walking a path while reading it? It can open your eyes to a different version of life, or show you your own life from a new angle. But the book itself won’t change your life — you still have to move, walk, do things. I could watch some movie now, for example — I really like the film “Poddubny,” it’s based on real events — and after watching it, I might suddenly want to start writing Russian fairy tales. And why is that? Because it inspired me. But there wasn’t anything about Russian fairy tales in it, there wasn’t anything about being a writer. Yet you see — that’s the reaction. That’s how it works: I got inspiration from the film, even though it was about a wrestler. And someone else might watch that film and decide to become a wrestler, go train. But someone who’s a writer might write a book about it. And someone who’s a musician, seeing the injustice shown in the film, might write a song or a poem — that’s how the process unfolds. So each reader is in their own place, each with their own profession, their own specialty, each living in their own city or country. And how this book will inspire or not inspire someone — who knows? If only all writers thought that way. A writer, when creating their story, their