Books Quote by Nick Laird

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

— Leslie Langtry

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

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

“Nabokov complained he was afflicted with total recall, an affliction of which he could be miraculously cured by the presence of a biographer.”

— Stacy Schiff

Of course, both [Oscar] Wilde & [Vladimir] Nabokov believe in many things, and these things emerge in their writing clearly - for Wilde, the…

— Joyce Carol Oates

“Nabokov changed my life," Max said. "I was going to be a writer, and then I read Lolita and I decided to go to…

— Daniels, Leslie

“It's possible, in a poem or a short story, to write about commonplace things and objects using commonplace but precise language, and to endow…

— Raymond Carver

“Any fool can make history, but it takes a genius to write it.”

— Oscar Wilde

“I was no better at reading people than I had been ten seconds ago, but in that moment, I suddenly gained a flash of…

— Richelle Mead

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

— Lorrie Moore

Seem to be telling this, but really telling that. Three-dimensional writing, like three-dimensional chess. Nabokov was the other master of that. You could learn…

— Donald E. Westlake

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