Vladimir Nabokov

"All my stories are gay—in the classical sense of the word."

"Dare to dream without the sleeping bag of doubt."

"The touch of the past is the test of the present."

"Beauty is synonymous with strange."

"One's self is the first great mystery."

"A playful mystery, a frolic through time."

"The real thing, the real conspiracy, the actual data beyond the surface texture—that is what I look for."

"Nothing jars the eye and nothing jars the soul quite like a literary masterpiece."

"The greatest torture for a writer is a complete loss of privacy."

"We are all inventors, each sailing out on a voyage of discovery, guided each by a private chart."

"Death is the only absolute truth."

"The real moment of flight comes when the soul is freed from the body's laws."

"Despair is the price of self-awareness."

"A writer should have the precision of a poet and the passion of a madman."

"Beauty has no method; it has only moods."

"To invent the future, you must first understand the past."

"Patterns of human behavior become visible only through the lens of imagination."

"The most terrible thing is to have talent and no direction."

"I love my country—not the government, but the country itself."

"A novelist is essentially a manufacturer of souls."

"The difference between a great work and a mediocre one is usually just one word."

"Words are the only things that matter; everything else is just arrangement."

"I have no physical courage, but considerable moral courage."

"The greatest gift a father can give is permission to fail."

"Every person contains within themselves an entire universe."

"The pursuit of happiness is itself a happiness."

"One should love books before one loves life."

"Waiting is the hardest art of all."

"The butterfly is my soul's emblem."

"I am not a Freudian; I am not interested in the unconscious."