Derivative writers seem versatile because they imitate many others, past and present. Artistic originality has only itself to copy. — Vladimir Nabokov Copy Share Image
“I notice I may have somehow mixed up two events, my visit with Rita to Briceland on our way to Cantrip, and… — Vladimir Nabokov Copy Share Image
To play safe, I prefer to accept only one type of power: the power of art over trash, the triumph of magic… — Vladimir Nabokov Copy Share Image
Literature is invention. Fiction is fiction. To call a story a true story is an insult to both truth and art. — Vladimir Nabokov Copy Share Image
“Neither in environment nor in heredity can I find the exact instrument that fashioned me, the anonymous roller that pressed upon my… — Vladimir Nabokov Copy Share Image
“For me a work of fiction exists only insofar as it affords me what I shall bluntly call aesthetic bliss, that is… — Vladimir Nabokov Copy Share Image
“I was crazy about goal keeping. In Russia and the Latin countries, that gallant art had been always surrounded with a halo… — Vladimir Nabokov Copy Share Image
“I'm thinking of aurochs and angels, the secret of durable pigments, prophetic sonnets, the refuge of art, And this is the only… — 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
You have to be an artist and a madman, a creature of infinite melancholy, with a bubble of hot poison in your… — Vladimir Nabokov Copy Share Image
“I discovered in nature the non utilitarian delights that I sought in art. Both were a form of magic, both were a… — Vladimir Nabokov Copy Share Image
“what makes a work of fiction safe from larvae and rust is not its social importance but its art, only its art” — Vladimir Nabokov Copy Share Image
“Poor L. We are sorry that you left so soon. We are even sorrier to have inveigled our Esmeralda and mermaid into… — Vladimir Nabokov Copy Share Image
The commentator may be excused for repeating what he has stressed in his own books and lectures, namely that "offensive" is frequently… — Vladimir Nabokov Copy Share Image
Non-Russian readers do not realize two things: that not all Russians love Dostoievsky as much as Americans do, and that most of… — Vladimir Nabokov Copy Share Image
“We are liable to miss the best of life if we do not know how to tingle, if we do not learn… — Vladimir Nabokov Copy Share Image
do what only a true artist can do ... pounce upon the forgotten butterfly of revelation — 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
“He suggested I play golf, but finally agreed to give me something that, he said, "would really work"; and going to a… — Vladimir Nabokov Copy Share Image
I hope you will love your baby. I hope it will be a boy. That husband of yours, I hope, will always… — Vladimir Nabokov Copy Share Image
I do not see any essential difference between abstract and primitive art. Both are simple and sincere. Naturally, we should not generalize… — Vladimir Nabokov Copy Share Image
Chess problems demand from the composer the same virtues that characterize all worthwhile art: originality, invention, conciseness, harmony, complexity, and splendid insincerity — Vladimir Nabokov Copy Share Image
Beauty plus pity-that is the closest we can get to a definition of art. Where there is beauty there is pity for… — Vladimir Nabokov Copy Share Image
In this crazy mirror of terror and art a pseudo-quotation made up of obscure Shakespeareanisms (Chapter Three) somehow produces, despite its lack… — 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 Image
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 Image
“Ami azt illeti, Vannak kezdtek nagyon tetszeni a fák is, a csodák is meg az Adák is.” — Vladimir Nabokov Copy Share Image
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 Image
“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 Image
“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 Image
