You can always count on a murderer for a fancy prose style.

Quote by Vladimir Nabokov

Topics: Vladimir Nabokov Quotes

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

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

I have often noticed that after I had bestowed on the characters of my novels...

I have often noticed that after I had bestowed on the characters of my novels...

I think like a genius, I write like a distinguished author, and I speak like...

I think like a genius, I write like a distinguished author, and I speak like...

The more gifted and talkative one's characters are, the greater the chances of their resembling...

The more gifted and talkative one's characters are, the greater the chances of their resembling...

No author has created with less emphasis such pathetic characters as Chekhov has.

No author has created with less emphasis such pathetic characters as Chekhov has.

The evolution of sense is, in a sense, the evolution of nonsense.

The evolution of sense is, in a sense, the evolution of nonsense.

I would like to spare the time and effort of hack reviewers and, generally, persons...

I would like to spare the time and effort of hack reviewers and, generally, persons...

Happy is the novelist who manages to preserve an actual love letter that he received...

Happy is the novelist who manages to preserve an actual love letter that he received...

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

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

Treading the soil of the moon, palpitating its pebbles, tasting the panic and splendor of...

Treading the soil of the moon, palpitating its pebbles, tasting the panic and splendor of...

Genius is an African who dreams up snow

Genius is an African who dreams up snow

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

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

Imagination, the supreme delight of the immortal and the immature, should be limited. In order...

Imagination, the supreme delight of the immortal and the immature, should be limited. In order...

A novelist is, like all mortals, more fully at home on the surface of the...

A novelist is, like all mortals, more fully at home on the surface of the...

The good, the admirable reader identifies himself not with the boy or the girl in...

The good, the admirable reader identifies himself not with the boy or the girl in...

Let the credulous and the vulgar continue to believe that all mental woes can be...

Let the credulous and the vulgar continue to believe that all mental woes can be...

To play safe, I prefer to accept only one type of power: the power of...

To play safe, I prefer to accept only one type of power: the power of...

Caress the detail, the divine detail.

Caress the detail, the divine detail.

Style and Structure are the essence of a book; great ideas are hogwash.

Style and Structure are the essence of a book; great ideas are hogwash.

The breaking of a wave cannot explain the whole sea.

The breaking of a wave cannot explain the whole sea.