From the publisher: What are the components of the actor's profession? How does he work on the role? What is his relationship with the director and partners in the play? How does the actor feel about this, what is his way of thinking? - these are the questions the author is trying to answer. The book is based on the diary entries of the author of the book - the famous actress of the Taganka Theatre, interviews from different years, notes on the margins of plays and scripts, memories of meetings with I. Smoktunovsky, A. Tarkovsky, J. Simenon, O. Berggolts, G. Kozintsev and other interesting people.