Vladimir Nabokov was an extraordinary Russian-American writer, poet, translator, literary critic, and entomologist. Over his lifetime, Nabokov not only penned the controversial Lolita but also excelled in chess, entomology, boxing, soccer, and tennis. His body of work includes 17 novels and dozens of novellas, short stories, and translations.
Many literary critics consider Vladimir Nabokov one of the top ten most influential writers of modern times. What ties all his works together is a complex literary technique and a profound exploration of his characters’ emotional states. At AdmiGram.com, we admire Nabokov’s genius and his unique style.
Vladimir Nabokov: the writer’s most brilliant quotes
- I’m an American writer, born in Russia, educated in England, where I studied French literature, before spending fifteen years in Germany. My head speaks English, my heart speaks Russian, and my ear speaks French…
- The books you love should make you tremble and gasp with delight.
- Истина (Truth) is one of the few Russian words that rhymes with nothing.
- My desires are quite modest. Portraits of heads of state should not exceed the size of a postage stamp.
- Life is a great surprise. Perhaps death is an even greater one.
- There is nothing in the world that I loathe more than group activity, that communal bath where the hairy and slippery mix in a multiplication of mediocrity.
- A summer spent at a country house is nothing more than a quick blend of three scents: lilacs, freshly cut hay, and dry leaves.
- One must distinguish between sentimentality and sensitivity. A sentimental person can be terribly cruel in private life, while a truly sensitive person is never cruel.
- I take enough pride in knowing a little to humbly admit that I do not know everything.
- The threefold formula for human life: the irreversibility of the past, the insatiability of the present, and the unpredictability of the future.
- I often think we need a special punctuation mark for a smile — a concave line or a sideways parenthesis.
- A remarkable human trait: one might not know when they are doing good, but they always know when they are doing wrong.
- In every person, there are two opposing forces: the need for solitude and the desire for human connection.
- There are people who live through their eyes — their vision is the king of their senses, while the others are merely loyal servants.
- A change of scenery is a traditional misconception, often relied upon by doomed lovers and those suffering from incurable ailments.
- Human life is but a series of footnotes to a vast obscure unfinished masterpiece.
image on top: Walter Mori (Mondadori Publishers) / Wikimedia Commons
