“to play a solitary game of chequers, to read, to write – what should I do?” — Vladimir Nabokov Copy Share Image
a person hoping to become a poet must have the capacity of thinking of several things at a time. — Vladimir Nabokov Copy Share Image
A writer should have the precision of a poet and the imagination of a scientist. — Vladimir Nabokov Copy Share Image
Poetry involves the mysteries of the irrational perceived through rational words. — Vladimir Nabokov Copy Share Image
“It is not easy to describe lucidly in short notes to a poem the various approaches to a fortified castle,” — Vladimir Nabokov Copy Share Image
If I correctly understand the sense of this succinct observation, our poet suggests here that human life is but a series of… — Vladimir Nabokov Copy Share Image
while the scientist sees everything that happens in one point of space, the poet feels everything that happens in one point of… — Vladimir Nabokov Copy Share Image
“She comes when classes are to start, She gathers up last midnight’s clutter – burnt cigarettes, a rusted pen nib” — Vladimir Nabokov Copy Share Image
All the seven deadly sins are peccadilloes but without three of them, Pride, Lust, and Sloth, poetry might never have been born. — Vladimir Nabokov Copy Share Image
“I clearly understand, first, that the real human being is a poet and, second, that [the tyrant] is the incarnate negation of… — Vladimir Nabokov Copy Share Image
Dark pictures, thrones, the stones that pilgrims kiss Poems that take a thousand years to die But ape the immortality of this… — Vladimir Nabokov Copy Share Image
“Cannot it actually be that in a wildly literal sense, unacceptable to one's reason, he meant disappearing in his art, dissolving in… — Vladimir Nabokov Copy Share Image
“She was an extravagantly slender girl. Her ribs showed. The conspicuous knobs of her hipbones framed a hollowed abdomen, so flat as… — Vladimir Nabokov Copy Share Image
“Delvig's best poem is the one he dedicated to Pushkin, his schoolmate, in January 1815. A boy of sixteen, prophesying in exact… — Vladimir Nabokov Copy Share Image
Usually I read several books at a time - old books, new books, fiction, nonfiction, verse, anything - and when the bedside… — Vladimir Nabokov Copy Share Image
“The kind of poem I produced in those days was hardly anything more than a sign I made of being alive, of… — Vladimir Nabokov Copy Share Image
in a sense, all poetry is positional: to try to express one's position in regard to the universe embraced by consciousness, is… — Vladimir Nabokov Copy Share Image
“Alas, I was unable to transcend the simple human fact that whatever spiritual solace I might find, whatever lithophanic eternities might be… — Vladimir Nabokov Copy Share Image
“To hold her, to keep her -- just as she was -- with her cruelty, with her vulgarity, with her blinding blue… — Vladimir Nabokov Copy Share Image
“The kind of poem I produced in those days was hardly anything more than a sign I made of being alive, of… — Vladimir Nabokov Copy Share Image
“Vivian Bloodmark, a philosophical friend of mine, in later years, used to say that while the scientist sees everything that happens in… — Vladimir Nabokov Copy Share Image
There is nothing dictators hate so much as that unassailable, eternally elusive, eternally provoking gleam. One of the main reasons why the… — Vladimir Nabokov Copy Share Image
“And speaking of this wonderful machine: [840] I’m puzzled by the difference between Two methods of composing: A , the kind Which… — Vladimir Nabokov Copy Share Image
“On Translating Eugene Onegin 1 What is translation? On a platter A poet's pale and glaring head, A parrot's screech, a monkey's… — Vladimir Nabokov Copy Share Image
“Speaking of novels,’ I said, ‘you remember we decided once, you, your husband and I, that Proust’s rough masterpiece was a huge,… — Vladimir Nabokov Copy Share Image
“...under no circumstances would he [Humbert Humbert] have interfered with the innocence of a child, if there was the least risk of a row.” — Vladimir Nabokov Copy Share
The cradle rocks above an abyss, and common sense tells us that our existence is but a brief crack of light between two eternities… — Vladimir Nabokov Copy Share
“Ami azt illeti, Vannak kezdtek nagyon tetszeni a fák is, a csodák is meg az Adák is.” — Vladimir Nabokov Copy Share
We live not only in a world of thoughts, but also in a world of things. Words without experience are meaningless. — Vladimir Nabokov Copy Share
“It isn’t possible. I cannot imagine it. Come on over here, you foolish little doe, and tell me on what day I shall die.” — Vladimir Nabokov Copy Share
“Precautions to be taken in the case Of freak reincarnation: what to do On suddenly discovering that you Are now a young and vulnerable… — Vladimir Nabokov Copy Share
“It is indeed a tricky name. It is often misspelt, because the eye tends to regard the "a" of the first syllable as a… — Vladimir Nabokov Copy Share
“(T)here exist friendships which develop their own inner duration, their own eons of transparent time.” — Vladimir Nabokov Copy Share
![“I clearly understand, first, that the real human being is a poet and, second, that [the tyrant] is the incarnate negation of a poet.” quote by Vladimir Nabokov](https://sms4smile.com/q/img-quotes/06c/vladimir-nabokov-198_poet_i-clearly-understand-first-that-the-real_3031065.jpg)
![“And speaking of this wonderful machine: [840] I’m puzzled by the difference between Two methods of composing: A , the kind Which goes on solely in the poet’s mind, A testing of performing words, while he Is soaping a third time one leg, and B , The other kind, much more decorous, when He’s in his…” quote by Vladimir Nabokov](https://sms4smile.com/q/img-quotes/46a/vladimir-nabokov-198_composing_and-speaking-of-this-wonderful-machine-8_2914520.jpg)
