Quotes by Vladimir Nabokov

About Vladimir Nabokov:

Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov was a Russian-American novelist. While Nabokov's first nine novels were in Russian, he later rose to international prominence as a writer of English prose. He also made serious contributions as a lepidopterist and chess composer.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

I mean, I have the feeling that something in my mind is poisoning everything else.

Vladimir Nabokov

No, it is not my sense of the immorality of the Humbert Humbert-Lolita relationship that is strong; it is Humbert's sense. He cares, I do not. I do not give a damn for public morals, in America or elsewhere. And, anyway, cases of men in their forties...

Vladimir Nabokov

And yet I shall try again: "they are murdering me!"--all right, all together once more: "they are murdering me!" and again: "murdering"... I want to write this in such a way that you will cover your ears, your membranaceous, simian ears that you hide...

Vladimir Nabokov

As to the past, I would not mind retrieving from various corners of space-time certain lost comforts, such as baggy trousers and long, deep bathtubs.

Vladimir Nabokov

Light in comparison with darkness is a void.

Vladimir Nabokov

while the scientist sees everything that happens in one point of space, the poet feels everything that happens in one point of time.

Vladimir Nabokov

Do not be angry with the rain; it simply does not know how to fall upwards.

Vladimir Nabokov

Reality is a very subjective affair. I can only define it as a kind of gradual accumulation of information; and as specialization. If we take a lily, for instance, or any other kind of natural object, a lily is more real to a naturalist than it is to...

Vladimir Nabokov

Toward nightfall, Khrenov’s temperature had risen. The thermometer was warm, alive—the column of mercury climbed high on the little red ladder. For a long time he muttered unintelligibly, kept biting his lips and gently shaking his head. Then he ...

Vladimir Nabokov

We who burrow in filth every day may be forgiven perhaps the one sin that ends all sins.

Vladimir Nabokov

All my life I have been a poor go-to-sleeper. No matter how great my weariness, the wrench of parting with consciousness is unspeakably repulsive to me. I loathe Somnus, that black-masked headsman binding me to the block; and if in the course of year...

Vladimir Nabokov

I confess I do not believe in time. I like to fold my magic carpet, after use, in such a way as to superimpose one part of the pattern upon another. Let visitors trip. And the highest enjoyment of timelessness―in a landscape selected at random―is...

Vladimir Nabokov

And this is the only immortality you and i may share, my Lolita.

Vladimir Nabokov

Author Bio

  • NameVladimir Nabokov
  • DescriptionRussian-American novelist, lepidopterist, professor
  • BornApril 22, 1899
  • DiedJuly 2, 1977
  • CountryRussian Empire; United States Of America
  • ProfessionNovelist; Linguist; Poet; Writer; Zoologist; Translator; Playwright; Autobiographer; Educationist
  • WorksThe Defense; The Real Life Of Sebastian Knight; Lolita; Pale Fire; Speak, Memory
  • AwardsGuggenheim Fellowship