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I cannot disobey something which I do not know and the reality of which I have the right to deny.

Vladimir Nabokov

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Vladimir Nabokov
Age: 77 †
Born: 1899
Born: January 1
Died: 1977
Died: January 1
Autobiographer
Chess Composer
Chess Player
Journalist
Lepidopterist
Literary Critic
Novelist
Playwright
Poet
Science Fiction Writer
St. Petersburg
Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov
Vladimir Sirin
Vl. Sirin
Wladimir Nabokoff-Sirin
V. Sirin
Disobey
Deny
Reality
Cannot
Right
Something

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My own ultraviolet darling. Lolita
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Dostoevky's lack of taste, his monotonous dealings with persons suffering with pre-Freudian complexes, the way he has of wallowing in the tragic misadventures of human dignity - all this is difficult to admire.
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All my life I have been a poor go-to-sleeper. No matter how great my weariness, the wrench of parting with consciousness is unspeakably repulsive to me.
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No difference exists between American and European manners. A proletarian from Chicago can be just as Philistine as an English duke.
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A work of art has no importance whatever to society. It is only important to the individual.
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Do those clowns really believe what they teach?
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Suddenly for no earthly reason I felt immensely sorry for him and longed to say something real, something with wings and a heart, but the birds I wanted settled on my shoulders and head only later when I was alone and not in need of words.
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I am sentimental,’ she said. ‘I could dissect a koala but not its baby. I like the words damozel, eglantine, elegant. I love when you kiss my elongated white hand.
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The more gifted and talkative one's characters are, the greater the chances of their resembling the author in tone or tint of mind.
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If possible, be Russian. And live in another country. Play chess. Be an active trader between languages. Carry precious metals from one to the other. Remind us of Stravinsky. Know the names of plants and flying creatures. Hunt gauzy wings with snares of gauze. Make science pay tribute. Have a butterfly known by your name.
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I am thinking of aurochs and angels, the secret of durable pigments, prophetic sonnets, the refuge of art. And this is the only immortality you and I may share, my Lolita.
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There is only one school of literature - that of talent.
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I have the European urge to use my feet when a drive can be dispensed with.
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I don't want an elderly gentleman from Vienna with an umbrella inflicting his dreams upon me.
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I cannot conceive how anybody in his right mind should go to a psychoanalyst.
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A masterpiece of fiction is an original world and as such is not likely to fit the world of the reader.
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The lost glove is happy.
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Derivative writers seem versatile because they imitate many others, past and present. Artistic originality has only itself to copy.
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I was also supposed to quiz my various companions on a number of important matters such as nostalgia, fear of unknown animals, food fantasies, nocturnal emissions, hobbies, choice of radio program, changes in out look and so forth.
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