Vladimir Nabokov
Vladimir Nabokov
Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov, also known by the pen name Vladimir Sirin; 22 April 1899c – 2 July 1977) was a Russian-American novelist. His first nine novels were in Russian, and he achieved international prominence after he began writing English prose...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionNovelist
Date of Birth23 April 1899
CitySaint Petersburg, Russia
CountryUnited States of America
looks thorns
Look at this tangle of thorns.
strong morning kissing
- Might it console you to know that I expect nothing but torture from her return? That I regard you as a bird of paradise? She shook her head. - That my admiration for you is painfully strong? - I want Van – she cried – and not intangible admiration. - Intangible? You goose. You my gauge it, you may brush it once very lightly with the knuckles of you gloved hand. I said knuckles. I said once. That will do. I can't kiss you. Not even your burning face. Good-bye, pet. Tell Edmond to take a nap after he returns. I shall need him at two in the morning.
heart speak-english mind
My mind speaks English, my heart speaks Russian, and my ear prefers French.
believe destiny sky
Pnin slowly walked under solemn pines. The sky was dying. He did not believe in an autocratic God. He did believe, dimly, in a democracy of ghosts. The souls of the dead, perhaps, formed committees, and these, in continuous session, attended the destinies of the quick.
art facts fancy
There is no science without fancy and no art without fact.
thinking poet capacity
a person hoping to become a poet must have the capacity of thinking of several things at a time.
book ideas talent
Only talent interests me in paintings and books. Not general ideas, but the individual contribution.
moon sky black
Stirless, I stand at the window, and in the black bowl of the sky glows like a golden drop of honey the mellow moon
writing men two
Poor Knight! he really had two periods, the firsta dull man writing broken English, the seconda broken man writing dull English.
arrows mark
Which arrow flies for ever? The arrow that has hit its mark.
depression mind world
... my mind lay limp in an empty world.
lying mirrors ordinary
Here lies the sense of literary creation to portray ordinary objects as they will be reflected in kindly mirrors of future times. . . . To find in objects around us the fragrant tenderness that only posterity will discern . . .
dog
Who can say what heartbreaks are caused in a dog by our discontinuing a romp?
rich glory articles
The rich philistinism emanating from advertisements is due not to their exaggerating (or inventing) the glory of this or that serviceable article but to suggesting that the acme of human happiness is purchasable and that its purchase somehow ennobles the purchaser.