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Vladimir Nabokov Quotes
1899–1977 Russia
Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov (22 April (O.S. 10 April) 1899 – 2 July 1977) was a Russian-American writer. He wrote his first literary works in Russian, but gained international prominence as a masterly prose stylist for the novels he composed in English; his Lolita (1955) is frequently cited as one of the most important novels of the 20th century.
Russia Agnostics Memoirists Novelists Playwrights Also known as: Nabokov, Nabokov, Vladimir, Pale Fire, Speak, Memory, Speak,Memory
Random Vladimir Nabokov quote
64 quotes
I think like a genius, I write like a distinguished author, I speak like a child.
Strong Opinions (1973)
What is this jest in majesty? This ass in passion? How do God and Devil combine to form a live dog?
In due time history will have denounced everybody.
Pale Fire (1962)
Whenever in my dreams, I see the dead, they always appear silent, bothered, strangely depressed, quite unlike their dear bright selves.
Speak, Memory (1951)
The distinct feature of everything extant is its monotony.
You can always count on a murderer for fancy prose style.
Lolita (1955)
Oh, "impressed" is not the right word! Treading the soil of the moon gives one, I imagine (or rather my projected self imagines), the most remarkable romantic thrill ever experienced in the history of discovery.
Strong Opinions (1973)
Life is a great surprise. I do not see why death should not be an even greater one.
Pale Fire (1962)
Play! Invent the world! Invent reality!
Look at the Harlequins! (1974)
And there are things that are hard to talk about—you'll rub off their marvelous pollen at the touch of a word.
The evolution of sense is, in a sense, the evolution of nonsense.
Coincidence is a pimp and a cardsharper in ordinary fiction but a marvelous artist in the patterns of facts recollected by a non-ordinary memorist.
Let the credulous and the vulgar continue to believe that all mental woes can be cured by a daily application of old Greek myths to their private parts.
Strong Opinions (1973)
No free man needs a God; but was I free?
Pale Fire (1962)
The term "bend sinister" means a heraldic bar or band drawn from the left side (and popularly, but incorrectly, supposed to denote bastardy).
Bend Sinister (1963)
Curiously enough, one cannot read a book: one can only reread it. A good reader, a major reader, an active and creative reader is a rereader.
Lectures on Literature (1980)
A work of art has no importance whatever to society. It is only important to the individual, and only the individual reader is important to me.
Strong Opinions (1973)
I certainly do speak Russian. You see, it was the fashionable language par excellence, much more than French, among the nobles of Zembla at least.
Pale Fire (1962)
A book is like a trunk tightly packed with things. At the customs an official's hand plunges perfunctorily into it, but he who seeks treasures examines every thread.
The clumsiest literal translation is a thousand times more useful than the prettiest paraphrase.
Problems of translation (1955)
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