942 Quotes by Vladimir Nabokov

Do not be awed by giant predecessors. Be ill-tempered with their renown. Point out flaws. Frighten interviewers from Time. Appear in Playboy. Sell to the movies.

... my mind lay limp in an empty world.

All colors made me happy: even gray. My eyes were such that literally they Took photographs.

A toothache will cost a battle, a drizzle cancel an insurrection.

I don't want an elderly gentleman from Vienna with an umbrella inflicting his dreams upon me.

And the rest is rust and stardust.

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 . . .

Age indomitably, in the European manner. Do not finish your labours young. Be a planet, not a meteor. Honor the working day. Sit at your desk.

All great novels are great fairy tales.