Character. Spark. Genius. This is exactly what relatives, friends and colleagues note about the outstanding theater and film actor Sergei Koltakov (1955–2020) - a man who not only with his acting, but also with his fortitude, illuminated everyone he met and everything that surrounded him. Every appearance of S. Koltakov - be it a scene or a frame - is always an event, a culture shock. “Mirror for the Hero”, “Mother, Don’t Cry”, “Ekaterina”, “Union of Salvation”, “The Brothers Karamazov” and many more film works, as well also theatrical. He starred with cult directors - Gleb Panfilov, Vladimir Khotinenko, Sergei Ursulyak, Pavel Lungin, Yuri Moroz. His characters are impossible to forget - vivid images and an accurate fit into the type remain in the memory for a long time, making you think about a lot. “Thirst for Infinite Life” is a unique prose and poetic collection of a great master who masterfully mastered not only the art of impersonation, but also the literary gift, and also an artistic gift - this is evidenced by the paintings included in the book. As Dmitry Bykov correctly wrote in the preface: “... the presence of a genius in life is an important component of it, without geniuses it is unbearably boring, their mistakes are more precious than someone else’s rightness, their guesses are never amateurish, because geniuses somehow know the essence of things...” And Sergei Koltakov – definitely a genius.