Quotes from Vladimir Nabokov

Si me llevan a la muerte, recuerden, cuando lo hagan, que sólo un arrebato de locura podría darme la fuerza bruta para comportarme como una bestia.

One Cincinnatus was counting, but the other Cincinnatus had already stopped heeding the sound of the unnecessary count which was fading away in the distance; and, with a clarity he had never experienced before – at first almost painful, so suddenly did it come, but then suffusing him with joy, he reflected: why am I here? Why am I lying like this? And, having asked himself these simple questions, he answered them by getting up and looking around.

I want you to concentrate. You are going to die in a moment. The hereafter for all we know may be an eternal state of excruciating insanity. You smoked your last cigarette yesterday. Concentrate. Try to understand what is happening to you

It was high time I destroyed him, but he must understand why he was being destroyed

For as we know from dreams it is so hard To speak to our dear dead! They disregard Our apprehension, queaziness and shame - The awful sense that they're not quite the same.

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

not to spell very well, but to smell very well

compuse un madrigal al negro humo de sus pestañas, al pálido gris de sus ojos inexpresivos, a las cinco pecas asímetricas de su nariz respingona, al vello rubio de sus miembros tostados; pero lo rompí y ahora no puedo recordarlo.

Where, where... M'sieur Pierre mimicked him. You know where. Off to do chop-chop.

specula?ia filosofic? este inven?ia bog?ta?ilor. Jos cu ea!

Los veinticinco años que había vivido desde entonces se empequeñecieron hasta convertirse en un latido agónico y luego desaparecer.

Mlle Larivière bat alsbald Ada, sie zu einem abgelegenen Plätzchen zu begleiten. Dort nun stand die vollständig angezogene Dame in ihrem voluminösen Kleid, das seinen stattlichen Faltenwurf zwar beibehielt, aber offenbar um einen Zoll länger geworden war, so daß ihre Prünellenschuhe verdeckt wurden, stocksteif über einem verborgenen Platzregen und kehrte im nächsten Moment zu ihrer normalen Größe zurück. [...]

We live not only in a world of thoughts, but also in a world of things. Words without experience are meaningless

The clichés are, of course, disguised; essentially, they are the same throughout all cheap reading matter, whether it spans the universe or the living room. They are like those 'assorted' cookies that differ from one another only in shape and shade.

Sundaes cause acne.

He excused himself saying he felt out of sorts, and continued to clean the bowl of his pipe as fiercely as if it were my heart he was hollowing out.

I, on my part, was as naive as only a pervert can be

as if it were a point of honor—which, indeed, a point of art often is.

To think that between a Hamburger and a Humburger, she would--invariably, with icy precision--plump for the former.

There are events, strange happenings, that strike The mind as emblematic. They are like Lost similes adrift without a string. Attached to nothing. Thus that northern king, Whose desperate escape from prison was Brought off successfully only because Some forty of his followers that night Impersonated him and aped his flight -

A horsefly applied itself, blind fool, to Pnin's bald head, and was stunned by a smack of his meaty palm.

Well, you haven't kissed me yet, have you

The setting sun that lights the tips Of TV's giant paperclips Upon the roof; The shadow of the doorknob that At sundown is a baseball bat Upon the door, The cardinal that likes to sit And make chip-wit, chip-wit, chip-wit Upon the tree; The empty little swing that swings Under the tree: these are the things That break my heart.

You who conceal your strongest feelings must think me a shameless little idiot for throwing open my poor bruised heart like this.