Quotes By Vladimir Nabokov

Some people, and I am one of them, hate happy ends. We feel cheated. Harm is the norm.

A writer should have the precision of a poet and the imagination of a scientist.

The pages are still blank, but there is a miraculous feeling of the words being there, written in invisible ink and clamoring to become visible.

Nothing is more exhilarating than philistine vulgarity.

Turning one's novel into a movie script is rather like making a series of sketches for a painting that has long ago been finished and framed.

Style and Structure are the essence of a book; great ideas are hogwash.

To play safe, I prefer to accept only one type of power: the power of art over trash, the triumph of magic over the brute.

I cannot conceive how anybody in his right mind should go to a psychoanalyst.

It's a pity one can't imagine what one can't compare to anything. Genius is an African who dreams up snow.

Caress the detail, the divine detail.

The breaking of a wave cannot explain the whole sea.

I think it is all a matter of love: the more you love a memory, the stronger and stranger it is.

I would like to spare the time and effort of hack reviewers and, generally, persons who move their lips when reading.

Imagination, the supreme delight of the immortal and the immature, should be limited. In order to enjoy life, we should not enjoy it too much.