More Quotes by Vladimir Nabokov
The good, the admirable reader identifies himself not with the boy or the girl in the book, but with the mind that conceived and composed that book.
Why should I tolerate a perfect stranger at the bedside of my mind?
We live not only in a world of thoughts, but also in a world of things. Words without experience are meaningless.
Literature, real literature, must not be gulped down like some potion which may be good for the heart or good for the brain—the brain, that stomach of the soul. Literature must be taken and broken to bits, pulled apart, squashed—then its lovely reek will be smelt in the hollow of the palm, it will be munched and rolled upon the tongue with relish; then, and only then, its rare flavor will be appreciated at its true worth and the broken and crushed parts will again come together in your mind and disclose the beauty of a unity to which you have contributed something of your own blood.
Genius is an African who dreams up snow.
Curiosity is insubordination in its purest form.
I don't think in any language. I think in images.
Let all of life be an unfettered howl.
Mind you, sometimes the angels smoke, hiding it with their sleeves, and when the archangel comes, they throw the cigarettes away: that’s when you get shooting stars.
My mind speaks English, my heart speaks Russian, and my ear prefers French.
