Vladimir Nabokov Quotes
Most popular Vladimir Nabokov Quotes
![Satire is a lesson, parody is a game. - Vladimir Nabokov quote.](/img/q/61/36961A-satire-is-a-lesson-parody-is-game-vladimir-nabokov.png)
Satire is a lesson, parody is a game.
![The good writer is first of all an enchanter. - Vladimir Nabokov quote.](/img/q/53/42453A-the-good-writer-is-first-of-all-enchanter-vladimir-nabokov.png)
The good writer is first of all an enchanter.
![Curiosity ... is insubordination in its purest form. - Vladimir Nabokov quote.](/img/q/86/28986A-curiosity-is-insubordination-in-its-purest-form-vladimir-nabokov.png)
Curiosity ... is insubordination in its purest form.
![Our imagination flies; we are its shadow on the earth. - Vladimir Nabokov quote.](/img/q/06/11206A-our-imagination-flies-we-are-its-shadow-earth-vladimir-nabokov.png)
Our imagination flies; we are its shadow on the earth.
![Why should I tolerate a perfect stranger at the bedside of my mind? - Vladimir Nabokov quote.](/img/q/71/24071A-why-should-i-tolerate-a-perfect-stranger-at-bedside-my-vladimir-nabokov.png)
Why should I tolerate a perfect stranger at the bedside of my mind?
![Literature and butterflies are the two sweetest passions known to man. - Vladimir Nabokov quote.](/img/q/55/34955A-literature-and-butterflies-are-the-two-sweetest-passions-known-man-vladimir-nabokov.png)
Literature and butterflies are the two sweetest passions known to man.
![Beauty plus pity—this is the closest we can get to a definition of art. - Vladimir Nabokov quote.](/img/q/46/26446A-beauty-plus-pity-this-is-the-closest-we-can-get-vladimir-nabokov.png)
Beauty plus pity—this is the closest we can get to a definition of art.
![Initially, I was unaware that time, so boundless at first blush, was a prison. - Vladimir Nabokov quote.](/img/q/49/41049A-initially-i-was-unaware-that-time-so-boundless-at-first-vladimir-nabokov.png)
Initially, I was unaware that time, so boundless at first blush, was a prison.
![There are aphorisms that, like airplanes, stay up only while they are in motion. - Vladimir Nabokov quote.](/img/q/94/26194A-there-are-aphorisms-that-like-airplanes-stay-up-only-while-vladimir-nabokov.png)
There are aphorisms that, like airplanes, stay up only while they are in motion.
![A writer should have the precision of a poet and the imagination of a scientist. - Vladimir Nabokov quote.](/img/q/64/24764A-a-writer-should-have-the-precision-poet-imagination-scientist-vladimir-nabokov.png)
A writer should have the precision of a poet and the imagination of a scientist.
![Human life is but a series of footnotes to a vast obscure unfinished masterpiece. - Vladimir Nabokov quote.](/img/q/30/31330A-human-life-is-but-a-series-footnotes-vast-obscure-unfinished-vladimir-nabokov.png)
Human life is but a series of footnotes to a vast obscure unfinished masterpiece.
![A novelist is, like all mortals, more fully at home on the surface of the present than in the ooze of the past. - Vladimir Nabokov quote.](/img/q/43/36643A-a-novelist-is-like-all-mortals-more-fully-at-home-vladimir-nabokov.png)
A novelist is, like all mortals, more fully at home on the surface of the present than in the ooze of the past.
![When a man writes a letter to himself, it is a pity to post it to somebody else. Perhaps the same is true of a book. - Vladimir Nabokov quote.](/img/q/36/27336A-when-a-man-writes-a-letter-himself-it-is-pity-vladimir-nabokov.png)
When a man writes a letter to himself, it is a pity to post it to somebody else. Perhaps the same is true of a book.
![That trite little whimsy about characters getting out of hand...is as old as the quills.... My characters are galley slaves. - Vladimir Nabokov quote.](/img/q/35/42635A-that-trite-little-whimsy-about-characters-getting-out-handis-as-vladimir-nabokov.png)
That trite little whimsy about characters getting out of hand...is as old as the quills.... My characters are galley slaves.
![Sleep is the most moronic fraternity in the world, with the heaviest dues and the crudest rituals. It is a mental torture I find debasing. - Vladimir Nabokov quote.](/img/q/10/39910A-sleep-is-the-most-moronic-fraternity-world-with-heaviest-dues-vladimir-nabokov.png)
Sleep is the most moronic fraternity in the world, with the heaviest dues and the crudest rituals. It is a mental torture I find debasing.
![Ideas in modern Russia are machine-cut blocks coming in solid colors; the nuance is outlawed, the interval walled up, the curve grossly stepped. - Vladimir Nabokov quote.](/img/q/33/24433A-ideas-in-modern-russia-are-machine-cut-blocks-coming-solid-vladimir-nabokov.png)
Ideas in modern Russia are machine-cut blocks coming in solid colors; the nuance is outlawed, the interval walled up, the curve grossly stepped.
![Literature was born not the day when a boy crying "wolf, wolf" came running out of the Neanderthal valley with a big gray wolf at his heels; literature was born on the day when a boy came crying "wolf, wolf" and there was no wolf behind him. - Vladimir Nabokov quote.](/img/q/54/34954A-literature-was-born-not-the-day-when-boy-crying-wolf-vladimir-nabokov.png)
Literature was born not the day when a boy crying "wolf, wolf" came running out of the Neanderthal valley with a big gray wolf at his heels; literature was born on the day when a boy came crying "wolf, wolf" and there was no wolf behind him.
Human life is but a series of footnotes to a vast obscure unfinished manuscript.