942 Quotes by Vladimir Nabokov

I was a daisy fresh girl and look what you’ve done to me.

The problem lies not with the characters within the novel, but with the reader itself.

Time means succession, and succession, change: Hence timelessness is bound to disarrange Schedules of sentiment.

I don’t read reviews about myself with any special eagerness or attention unless they are masterpieces of wit and acumen, and I never reread them.

Blue evenings in Berlin, the corner chestnut in flower, light-headedness, poverty, love, the tangerine tinge of premature shoplights, and an animal aching yearn for the still fresh reek of Russia...

Chess problems demand from the composer the same virtues that characterize all worthwhile art: originality, invention, conciseness, harmony, complexity, and splendid insincerity.

Turning one’s novel into a movie script is rather like making a series of sketches for a painting that has long ago been finished and framed.

Don’t touch me; I’ll die if you touch me.

There is only one school of literature – that of talent.