Authors by alphabet: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Vladimir Nabokov

(1899 – 1977) Full name: Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov. A Russian-born American writer, novelist, lepidopterist and professor. He wrote his first literary works in Russian, but rose to international prominence as a masterly prose stylist for the novels he composed in English. His novel "Lolita" is frequently cited as one of the most important novels of the 20th century. He was a finalist for the National Book Award for Fiction seven times, but never won it.

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

I would like to spare the time and effort of hack reviewers and, generally, persons who move their lips when reading.

Imagination, the supreme delight of the immortal and the immature, should be limited. In order to enjoy life, we should not enjoy it too much.

It is hard, I submit, to loathe bloodshed, including war, more than I do, but it is still harder to exceed my loathing of the very nature of totalitarian states in which massacre is only an administrative detail.

The breaking of a wave cannot explain the whole sea.

The good, the admirable reader identifies himself not with the boy or the girl in the book, but with the mind that conceived and composed that book.

The more gifted and talkative one's characters are, the greater the chances of their resembling the author in tone or tint of mind.