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43 quotes by Vladimir Nabokov

Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov (/nəˈbɔːkəf, ˈnæbəˌkɔːf, -ˌkɒf/; Russian: Влади мир Влади мирович Набо ков, pronounced [vlɐˈdʲimʲɪr nɐˈbokəf] ( listen), also known by the pen name Vladimir Sirin; 22 April [O.S. 10 April] 1899c – 2 July 1977) was a Russian novelist. Nabokov's first nine novels were in Russian. He then rose to international prominence as a writer of English prose. He also made serious contributions as...
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The breaking of a wave cannot explain the whole sea.

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Life is a great sunrise. I do not see why death should not be an even greater one.

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The cradle rocks above an abyss, and common sense tells us that our existence is but a brief crack of light between two eternities of darkness.

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Existence is a series of footnotes to a vast, obscure, unfinished masterpiece.

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The pages are still blank, but there is a miraculous feeling of the words being there, written in invisible ink and clamoring to become visible.

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Satire is a lesson, parody is a game.

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I confess, I do not believe in time.

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There are aphorisms that, like airplanes, stay up only while they are in motion.

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A writer should have the precision of a poet and the imagination of a scientist.

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Poetry involves the mysteries of the irrational perceived through rational words.

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Literature and butterflies are the two sweetest passions known to man.

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Nothing revives the past so completely as a smell that was once associated with it.

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My loathings are simple: stupidity, oppression, crime, cruelty, soft music.

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