942 Quotes by Vladimir Nabokov

...(hot, opalescent, thick tears that poets and lovers shed)...

The breaking of a wave cannot explain the whole sea.

Oh, let me be mawkish for the nonce! I am so tired of being cynical.

Genius is an African who dreams up snow.

The spiral is a spiritualized circle. In the spiral form, the circle, uncoiled, has ceased to be vicious; it has been set free.

What surprises you in life? The marvel of consciousness -- that sudden window swinging open on a sunlit landscape amidts the night of non-being.

Only ambitious nonentities and hearty mediocrities exhibit their rough drafts. It's like passing around samples of sputum.

Some people, and I am one of them, hate happy ends. We feel cheated. Harm is the norm.

I knew I had fallen in love with Lolita forever; but I also knew she would not be forever Lolita.