Chess Quote by Donald E. Westlake

“The Russian-born novelist's writing habits were famously peculiar. Beginning in 1950, he composed first drafts in pencil on ruled index cards, which he stored…

— Mason Currey

“Writing of Pushkin, Nabokov once observed quite accurately that his subject was the threefold formula of human life: the irretrievability of the past, the…

— Brian Boyd

I believe novels can have secrets from their author, a notion I imagine would appall Nabokov.

— Steve Erickson

“You can always count on a murderer for a fancy prose style." —Vladimir Nabokov”

— Leslie Langtry

Nabokov's adventures in language and style and naked braininess are really unparalleled.

— Lorrie Moore

I see this quality [real interest and joy] in the work of [Pavel] Chekhov, of course, and [Alexei] Tolstoy and really just about any…

— George Saunders

Nabokov can be almost too delicate at times, but in 'Lolita,' he puts his aristocratic sensitivity to use in such a dark tale that…

— Hallgrimur Helgason

Nabokov, who I loved more than any other writer when I was young, had such contempt for dialogue. When I was younger, I never…

— Zadie Smith

For a Nabokov fan, paging through 'Fine Lines,' which includes a critical introduction and several essayistic evaluations of Nabokov's scientific oeuvre, can feel a…

— Elif Batuman

Vladimir Nabokov was a writer who cared nothing for music and whose favorite sport was the pursuit, capture, and murder of butterflies. This explains…

— Edward Abbey

Of all the writers I have read, Vladimir Nabokov has made the biggest impression on me because he, despite living through the 1917 February…

— Ashwin Sanghi

“Saint Petersburg in revolt gave us Vladimir Nabokov, Isaiah Berlin, and Ayn Rand. The first was a novelist, the second a philosopher. The third…

— Corey Robin