Vladimir Nabokov

"The human eye is the only true morality."

"Humility is often a guise."

"A work of art has no importance whatever to society. It is only important to the artist."

"Everything one invents is true."

"I think that what matters is the immersion of the reader in the book."

"I suffer from nostalgia which is a sickness for which there is no cure."

"The prison of mirrors called the mirror of consciousness."

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

"Readers are born free, and everywhere they are in chains."

"I have written myself into a condition."

"All the people I love are dead or gone."

"The pages of a dictionary hold all the stories the world contains."

"Perfection is not just about control, it is also about letting go."

"Literature is the art of synthesis."

"Every man is a genius in his own way."

"I am thinking of aurochs and angels, the secret of durable pigments, prophetic sonnets, the refuge of art."

"The cradle, the car, the coffin—these three containers carry a man through life."

"One should as a rule respect public opinion in so far as is necessary to avoid starvation."

"I confess I do not believe in time."

"Despair is only for those who see the end beyond all doubt."

"The artist is a feeler and a thinker."

"All happy families are more or less dissimilar."

"Beauty is our weapon against nature; by it we make objects, suns, stars."

"The one thing that matters is the text. Not the author."

"My soul is a carnivorous bird."

"A novelist is to a journalist what a chef is to a waiter."

"The difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter."

"Life evokes curiosity, and curiosity takes many forms."

"What I really love is nature. I am happiest in the woods."

"Inspiration starts as a germ of an idea which grows into reality."