Vladimir Nabokov quotes - page 9

The title's drawback is that a solemn reader looking for "general ideas" or "human interest" (which is much the same thing) in a novel may be led to look for them in this one. (Vladimir Nabokov)
An old Russian lady who has for some obscure reason begged me not to divulge her name, happened to show me in Paris the diary she had kept in the past. .... I cannot see any real necessity of complying with her anonymity. View quote
Vladimir Nabokov
The term "bend sinister" means a heraldic bar or band drawn from the left side (and popularly, but incorrectly, supposed to denote bastardy). View quote
Vladimir Nabokov
Whenever in my dreams, I see the dead, they always appear silent, bothered, strangely depressed, quite unlike their dear bright selves. View quote
Vladimir Nabokov
My desires are modest. Portraits of the head of the government should not exceed a postage stamp in size. View quote
Vladimir Nabokov
Ink, a Drug. View quote
Vladimir Nabokov
...(hot, opalescent, thick tears that poets and lovers shed)... View quote
Vladimir Nabokov
It is late now, I am a bit tired; the sky is irritated by stars. And I love you, I love you, I love you – and perhaps this is how the whole enormous world, shining all over, can be created – out of five vowels and three consonants. View quote
Vladimir Nabokov
Why did I hope we would be happy abroad? A change of environment is that traditional fallacy upon which doomed loves, and lungs, rely. View quote
Vladimir Nabokov
I looked and looked at her, and knew as clearly as I know I am to die, that I loved her more than anything I had ever seen or imagined on earth, or hoped for anywhere else. View quote
Vladimir Nabokov
Imagine me; I shall not exist if you do not imagine me. (Vladimir Nabokov)
Reality is neither the subject nor the object of true art which creates its own special reality having nothing to do with the average "reality" perceived by the communal eye. View quote
Vladimir Nabokov
... memory can restore to life everything except smells, although nothing revives the past so completely as a smell that was once associated with it. View quote
Vladimir Nabokov
I was the shadow of the waxwing slain By the false azure in the windowpane; I was the smudge of ashen fluff -and I Lived on, flew on, in the reflected sky. View quote
Vladimir Nabokov
Years of secret suffering had taught me superhuman self-control. View quote
Vladimir Nabokov
beware of ideas... View quote
Vladimir Nabokov
Spontaneous eloquence seems to me a miracle. View quote
Vladimir Nabokov
Genius is an African who dreams up snow. View quote
Vladimir Nabokov
My mind speaks English, my heart speaks Russian, and my ear prefers French. View quote
Vladimir Nabokov
I am not, and never was, and never could have been, a brutal scoundrel. View quote
Vladimir Nabokov
Beauty plus pity -- that is the closest we can get to a definition of art. (Vladimir Nabokov)
A change of environment is the traditional fallacy upon which doomed loves, and lungs, rely. View quote
Vladimir Nabokov
The summer night was starless and stirless, with distant spasms of silent lightning. View quote
Vladimir Nabokov
We had been everywhere. We had really seen nothing. And I catch myself thinking today that our long journey had only defiled with a sinuous trail of slime the lovely, trustful, dreamy, enormous country that by then, in retrospect, was no more to us than a collection of dog-eared maps, ruined tour books, old tires, and her sobs in the night - every night, every night - the moment I feigned sleep. View quote
Vladimir Nabokov
A toothache will cost a battle, a drizzle cancel an insurrection. View quote
Vladimir Nabokov