Style and Structure are the essence of a book; great ideas are hogwash. — 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
The writer's job is to get the main character up a tree, and then once they are up there, throw rocks at… — Vladimir Nabokov Copy Share Image
“In its published form, this book is being read, I assume, in the first years of 2000 A.D. (1935 plus eighty or… — Vladimir Nabokov Copy Share Image
To begin with, let us take the following motto...Literature is Love. Now we can continue. — Vladimir Nabokov Copy Share Image
“She is a great gobbler of books, but reads only trash, memorizing nothing and leaving out the longer descriptions.” — Vladimir Nabokov Copy Share Image
Literature is invention. Fiction is fiction. To call a story a true story is an insult to both art and truth. — Vladimir Nabokov Copy Share Image
Curiously enough, one cannot read a book; one can only reread it. A good reader, a major reader, and active and creative… — Vladimir Nabokov Copy Share Image
“A writer is lost when he grows interested in such questions as 'what is art?' and 'what is an artist's duty?” — Vladimir Nabokov Copy Share Image
The good, the admirable reader identifies himself not with the boy or the girl in the book, but with the mind that… — Vladimir Nabokov Copy Share Image
My principal failing as a writer is the lack of spontaneity; the nuisance of parallel thoughts, second thoughts, third thoughts; inability to… — Vladimir Nabokov Copy Share Image
At a very early stage of the novel's development I get this urge to collect bits of straw and fluff, and to… — Vladimir Nabokov Copy Share Image
When I receive a new novel from a hopeful publisher - "hoping that I like the book as much as he does"… — 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 pale organisms of literary heroes feeding under the author's supervision swell gradually with the reader's lifeblood; so that the genius of… — Vladimir Nabokov Copy Share Image
A creative writer must study carefully the works of his rivals, including the Almighty. He must possess the inborn capacity not only… — Vladimir Nabokov Copy Share Image
It was an interesting thing to do. Why did I write any of my books, after all? For the sake of the… — Vladimir Nabokov Copy Share Image
I do not begin my novel at the beginning, I do not reach chapter three before I reach chapter four, I do… — Vladimir Nabokov Copy Share Image
Literature, real literature, must not be gulped down like some potion which may be good for the heart or good for the… — Vladimir Nabokov Copy Share Image
“My advice to a budding literary critic would be as follows. Learn to distinguish banality. Remember that mediocrity thrives on "ideas." Beware… — Vladimir Nabokov Copy Share Image
“There are three points of view from which a writer can be considered: he may be considered as a storyteller, as a… — Vladimir Nabokov Copy Share Image
“Cynthia had been on friendly terms with an eccentric librarian called Porlock who in the last years of his dusty life had… — Vladimir Nabokov Copy Share Image
“Just as the universal family of gifted writers transcends national barriers, so is the gifted reader a universal figure, not subject to… — Vladimir Nabokov Copy Share Image
“There exist few things more tedious than a discussion of general ideas inflicted by author or reader upon a work of fiction.… — Vladimir Nabokov Copy Share Image
“One evening at a remote provincial college through which I happened to be jogging on a protracted lecture tour, I suggested a… — Vladimir Nabokov Copy Share Image
“There are gentle souls who would pronounce Lolita meaningless because it does not teach them anything. I am neither a reader nor… — Vladimir Nabokov Copy Share Image
“... one cannot read a book: one can only reread it. A good reader, a major reader, an active and creative reader… — Vladimir Nabokov Copy Share Image
“...I happen to be the kind of author who in starting to work on a book has no purpose than to get… — Vladimir Nabokov Copy Share Image
Knowing you have something good to read before bed is among the most pleasurable of sensations. — Vladimir Nabokov Copy Share Image
“how can I write about this when I am afraid of not having time to finish and of stirring up all these… — Vladimir Nabokov Copy Share Image
Between the wolf in the tall grass and the wolf in the tall story there is a shimmering go-between. That go-between, that… — Vladimir Nabokov Copy Share Image
The more gifted and talkative one's characters are, the greater the chances of their resembling the author in tone or tint of… — Vladimir Nabokov Copy Share Image
I have rewritten — often several times — every word I have ever published. My pencils outlast their erasers. — Vladimir Nabokov Copy Share Image
“The Lethean Library, for all its incalculable volumes, is, I know, sadly incomplete without Mr. Goodman's effort.” — Vladimir Nabokov Copy Share Image
“A major writer combines these three - storyteller, teacher, enchanter - but it is the enchanter in him that predominates and makes… — Vladimir Nabokov Copy Share Image
“the good reader is one who has imagination, memory, a dictionary, and some artistic sense–-” — 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
