Only talent interests me in paintings and books. Not general ideas, but the individual contribution. — Vladimir Nabokov Copy Share Image
“If sex is the sermon made of art, love is the lady of that tower.” — Vladimir Nabokov Copy Share Image
“Great sleepless artists who had to die for a few hours in order to live for centuries.” — Vladimir Nabokov Copy Share Image
A work of art has no importance whatever to society. It is only important to the individual. — 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
Beauty plus pity -- that is the closest we can get to a definition of art. — 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
I see nothing for the treatment of my misery but the melancholy and very local palliative of articulate art. — Vladimir Nabokov Copy Share Image
“What can be sadder than a discouraged artist dying not from his own commonplace maladies, but from the cancer of oblivion?” — 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
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
Imagination without knowledge leads no farther than the back yard of primitive art, the child's scrawl on the fence, and the crank's… — Vladimir Nabokov Copy Share Image
Although I do not care for the slogan "art for art's sake", there can be no question that what makes a work… — Vladimir Nabokov Copy Share Image
“Reality is neither the subject nor the object of true art which creates its own special reality having nothing to do with… — Vladimir Nabokov Copy Share Image
“I will contend until I am shot that art as soon as it is brought into contact with politics inevitably sinks to… — Vladimir Nabokov Copy Share Image
A work of art has no importance whatever to society. It is only important to the individual, and only the individual reader… — Vladimir Nabokov Copy Share Image
“Although I am capable, through long dabbling in blue magic, of imitating any prose in the world (but singularly enough not verse—I… — 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
“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
“Literature under despotism: “The personality of the artist should develop freely and without restraint. One thing, however, we demand: acknowledgement of our… — Vladimir Nabokov Copy Share Image
The term "bend sinister" means a heraldic bar or band drawn from the left side (and popularly, but incorrectly, supposed to denote… — Vladimir Nabokov Copy Share Image
“Eystein had also resorted to a weird form of trickery: among his decorations of wood or wool, gold or velvet, he would… — 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
“...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
![“...under no circumstances would he [Humbert Humbert] have interfered with the innocence of a child, if there was the least risk of a row.” quote by Vladimir Nabokov](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/0f0/vladimir-nabokov-198_children_under-no-circumstances-would-he-humbert_16228.jpg)
