942 Quotes by Vladimir Nabokov

the only real, genuinely unquestionable thing here was only death itself

. . .the mad conjurer at the ward whose pet obsession was that gravity had something to do with the blood circulation of a Supreme Being.

Let at least one word of my writings impregnate the reader's heart.

Dobbiamo distinguere tra "sentimentale" e "sensibile". Un sentimentale può essere, nelle ore libere, un autentico bruto.

I felt that way not because I never once discovered any palpable hard young throat to crush among the masculine mutes that flickered somewhere in the background; but because it was to me "overwhelmingly obvious" (a favorite expression with my aunt Sybil) that all varieties of high school boys - from the perspiring nincompoop whom "holding hands" thrills, to the self-sufficient rapist with pustules and a souped-up car - equally bored my sophisticated young mistress.

What further concentration is needed, what added intensity must one's gaze attain, for the brain to enslave the visual image of a person?

[...] odrębność stanowi jedną z podstawowych cech życia. Jeżeli nie otacza nas powłoka cielesna, musimy umrzeć. Człowiek egzystuje tylko wtedy, kiedy jest odizolowany od otoczenia. Czaszka to nasz hełm kosmonauty. Musimy w niej tkwić, bo w przeciwnym razie czeka nas zguba. Śmierć zaś uwalnia i jednoczy. Chociaż przeniknięcie do natury może się wydawać kuszące, oznacza ono zarazem koniec naszej kruchej tożsamości.

Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins, my sin, my soul, Lo-lee-ta: the tip of the tongue taking a trip of three steps down the palate to tap, at three, on the teeth.

Love, most likely. They don't know how dreary it is, how degrading.