Quotes from Vladimir Nabokov

All of a sudden I noticed that he had noticed that I did not seem to have noticed Chum protruding from beneath the other corner of the chest. We fell to wrestling again. We rolled all over the floor, in each other's arms, like two huge helpless children. He was naked and goatish under his robe, and I felt suffocated as he rolled over me. I rolled over him. We rolled over me. They rolled over him. We rolled over us.

The name yawned like a black doorway, then the door banged.

this summer is so much sadder than the other

Il genio è un africano che vede in sogno la neve.

I am trying to describe these things not to relive them in my present boundless misery, but to sort out the portion of hell and the portion of heaven in that strange, awful, maddening world...

Oh Lolita, you are my girl, as Vee was Poe's and Bea Dante's, and

Blue!' she exclaimed. 'Violet blue. What are they made of?' 'Summer skies,' I said, 'and plums and figs, and the grape-blood of emperors.' 'No

In this very special self-hypnotic state there can be no question of getting out of touch with on[e]self and floating into a normal sleep (unless you are very tired at the start)

Throughout eternity our poor ghosts are exposed to nameless vicissitudes. There is no appeal, no advice, no support, no protection, nothing. Poor Kinbote's ghost, poor Shade's shade, may have blundered, may have taken the wrong turn somewhere—oh, from sheer absent-mindedness, or simply through ignorance of a trivial rule in the preposterous game of nature—if there be any rules.

To call a story a true story is an insult to both art and truth.

Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul. Lo-lee-ta: the tip of the tongue taking a trip of three steps down the palate to tap, at three, on the teeth. Lo. Lee. Ta

The beastly and beautiful merged at one point, and it is that borderline I would like to fix, and I feel I fail to do so utterly.

walk starry-eyed and reverently through this foretaste of Heaven, drinking in beauty that can influence a life.

One of the functions of all my novels is to prove that the novel in general does not exist.

And all these are worlds," said Hagen. "Or else," said Clements with a yawn, "a frightful mess. I suspect it is really a fluorescent corpse, and we are inside it.

In order to bask in that magic a wise reader reads the book of genius not with his heart, not so much with his brain, but with his spine. It is there that occurs the telltale tingle even though we must keep a little aloof, a little detached when reading. Then with a pleasure which is both sensual and intellectual we shall watch the artist build his castle of cards and watch the castle of cards become a castle of beautiful steel and glass.

I wandered through various public rooms, glory below, gloom above: for the look of lust always is gloomy; lust is never quite sure—even when the velvety victim is locked up in one's dungeon—that some rival devil or influential god may still not abolish one's prepared triumph

A storm of sobs was filling my chest.

I can only explain my behaviour then by the mechanism of that dream vacuum wherein revolves a deranged mind.

Kai atsigr?ži ? savo jaunyst?s dienas, jos atrodo kaip nuo man?s tolstantis blankus pakartotini? skiau?i? s?kurys, kaip rytinis spie?ius sunaudot? popier?li?, matomas Amerikos ekspreso keleivio pro paskutinio vagono galin? lang?, už kurio jie s?kuriuoja.

Oh, 'impressed' is not the right word! Treading the soil of the moon gives one, I imagine (or rather my projected self imagines), the most remarkable romantic thrill ever experienced in the history of discovery.

Lolita, hayat?m?n ?????, kas?klar?m?n ateÅŸi. Günah?m, ruhum, Lolita; dilin ucu damaktan diÅŸlere doÄŸru üç basamakl?k bir yol al?r, üçüncÄŸsÄŸnde gelir diÅŸlere dayan?r. Lo-Li-Ta.

Lolita, luz de mi vida, fuego de mis entrañas. Pecado mío, alma mía. Lo-lita: la punta de la lengua emprende un viaje de tres pasos desde el borde del paladar para apoyarse, en el tercero, en el borde de los dientes. Lo.Li.Ta.

Lolita, hayat?m?n ?????, kas?klar?m?n ateÅŸi. Günah?m, ruhum, Lolita; dilin ucu damaktan diÅŸlere doÄŸru üç basamakl?k bir yol al?r, üçüncüsünde gelir diÅŸlere dayan?r. Lo-Li-Ta