while the scientist sees everything that happens in one poin... - Vladimir Nabokov

"Why did I hope we would be happy abroad? A change of environment is that traditional fallacy upon which doomed loves, and lungs, rely."

"The pages are still blank, but there is a miraculous feeling of the words being there, written in invisible ink and clamoring to become visible"

"Our imagination flies -- we are its shadow on the earth."

"To play safe, I prefer to accept only one type of power: the power of art over trash, the triumph of magic over the brute."

"Lolita is famous, not I. I am an obscure, doubly obscure, novelist with an unpronounceable name."