Nabokov Quote by Orhan Pamuk

“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

After Stalin died, the Soviet Union began inching toward the world again. The ban on jazz was lifted. Ernest Hemingway was published; the Pushkin…

— Keith Gessen

“Stalin is one of the most extraordinary figures in world history. He began as a small clerk, and he has never stopped being a…

— Adolf Hitler

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

— Leslie Langtry

“How do you build a history based on ceaseless self-slaughter and betrayal? Do you deny it? Forget it? But then you are left orphaned.…

— Peter Pomerantsev

“Find the crime, Arkady thought: trying to kill Stalin or missing him.”

— Martin Cruz Smith

Stalin didn't write any memoirs. He was too secretive. He was afraid people might read them.

— Jonathan Lynn

“Though Stalin was no more to be trusted than was Hitler, and though he was responsible for the deaths of more citizens of his…

— Archie Brown

“We want what the woman wanted in the prison queue in Leningrad, standing there with cold and whispering for fear, enduring the terror of…

— Seamus Heaney

“I heard of that bloodthirsty old murderer Josef Stalin inviting all nations to join a happy family of folks devoted to the abolition of…

— J.R.R. Tolkien

“How do you build a history based on ceaseless self-slaughter and betrayal? Do you deny it? Forget it? But then you are left orphaned.…

— Peter Pomerantsev

“Again and again as we discussed Lolita in that class, our discussions were colored by my students' hidden personal sorrows and joys. Like tearstains…

— Azar Nafisi