Writer Quotes by Vladimir Nabokov

An active and creative reader is a re-reader.

— Vladimir Nabokov

“...the book like a sleigh left my lap...”

— Vladimir Nabokov

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

— Vladimir Nabokov

In reading, one should notice and fondle details.

— Vladimir Nabokov

Readers are not sheep, and not every pen tempts them.

— Vladimir Nabokov

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

— Vladimir Nabokov

“A writer is lost when he grows interested in such questions as 'what is art?' and 'what is an artist's duty?”

— Vladimir Nabokov

The good, the admirable reader identifies himself not with the boy or the girl in the book, but with the mind that…

— Vladimir Nabokov

“...I happen to be the kind of author who in starting to work on a book has no purpose than to get…

— Vladimir Nabokov

Knowing you have something good to read before bed is among the most pleasurable of sensations.

— Vladimir Nabokov

Curiously enough, one cannot read a book; one can only reread it. A good reader, a major reader, and active and creative…

— Vladimir Nabokov

“She is a great gobbler of books, but reads only trash, memorizing nothing and leaving out the longer descriptions.”

— Vladimir Nabokov

Literature is invention. Fiction is fiction. To call a story a true story is an insult to both art and truth.

— Vladimir Nabokov

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

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

My principal failing as a writer is the lack of spontaneity; the nuisance of parallel thoughts, second thoughts, third thoughts; inability to…

— Vladimir Nabokov

When I receive a new novel from a hopeful publisher - "hoping that I like the book as much as he does"…

— Vladimir Nabokov

It was an interesting thing to do. Why did I write any of my books, after all? For the sake of the…

— Vladimir Nabokov

“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

A creative writer must study carefully the works of his rivals, including the Almighty. He must possess the inborn capacity not only…

— Vladimir Nabokov

Usually I read several books at a time - old books, new books, fiction, nonfiction, verse, anything - and when the bedside…

— Vladimir Nabokov

I do not begin my novel at the beginning, I do not reach chapter three before I reach chapter four, I do…

— Vladimir Nabokov

“My advice to a budding literary critic would be as follows. Learn to distinguish banality. Remember that mediocrity thrives on "ideas." Beware…

— Vladimir Nabokov

Literature, real literature, must not be gulped down like some potion which may be good for the heart or good for the…

— Vladimir Nabokov

“One evening at a remote provincial college through which I happened to be jogging on a protracted lecture tour, I suggested a…

— Vladimir Nabokov

“Cynthia had been on friendly terms with an eccentric librarian called Porlock who in the last years of his dusty life had…

— Vladimir Nabokov

“Just as the universal family of gifted writers transcends national barriers, so is the gifted reader a universal figure, not subject to…

— Vladimir Nabokov

“There exist few things more tedious than a discussion of general ideas inflicted by author or reader upon a work of fiction.…

— Vladimir Nabokov

“There are three points of view from which a writer can be considered: he may be considered as a storyteller, as a…

— Vladimir Nabokov

“... one cannot read a book: one can only reread it. A good reader, a major reader, an active and creative reader…

— Vladimir Nabokov

“There are gentle souls who would pronounce Lolita meaningless because it does not teach them anything. I am neither a reader nor…

— Vladimir Nabokov

To begin with, let us take the following motto...Literature is Love. Now we can continue.

— Vladimir Nabokov

“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

A masterpiece of fiction is an original world and as such is not likely to fit the world of the reader.

— Vladimir Nabokov

A novelist is, like all mortals, more fully at home on the surface of the present than in the ooze of the…

— Vladimir Nabokov

It is a singular reaction, this sitting still and writing, writing, writing, or ruminating at length, which is much the same, really.

— Vladimir Nabokov

“The Lethean Library, for all its incalculable volumes, is, I know, sadly incomplete without Mr. Goodman's effort.”

— Vladimir Nabokov

“the good reader is one who has imagination, memory, a dictionary, and some artistic sense–-”

— Vladimir Nabokov

“A major writer combines these three - storyteller, teacher, enchanter - but it is the enchanter in him that predominates and makes…

— Vladimir Nabokov

“how can I write about this when I am afraid of not having time to finish and of stirring up all these…

— Vladimir Nabokov