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a36d0ce
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Speak, Memory is strictly autobiographic. There is nothing autobiographic in Lolita.
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Vladimir Nabokov |
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bf6dad4
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There was a sudden sunburst in my head. And then black night. That blackness was sublime. I felt distributed through space and time: One foot upon a mountaintop, one hand 150 Under the pebbles of a panting strand, One ear in Italy, one eye in Spain, In caves, my blood, and in the stars, my brain. There were dull throbs in my Triassic; green Optical spots in Upper Pleistocene, An icy shiver down my Age of Stone, And all tomorrows in my funn..
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Vladimir Nabokov |
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a32c472
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Many accepted authors simply do not exist for me. Their names are engraved on empty graves, their books are dummies, they are complete nonentities insofar as my taste in reading is concerned. Brecht, Faulkner, Camus, many others, mean absolutely nothing to me, and I must fight a suspicion of conspiracy against my brain when I see blandly accepted as "great literature" by critics and fellow authors Lady Chatterley's copulations or the preten..
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Vladimir Nabokov |
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5ff2afb
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And what agony, thought Krug the thinker, to love so madly a little creature, formed in some mysterious fashion (even more mysterious to us than it had been to the very first thinkers in their pale olive gloves) by the fusion of two mysteries, or rather two sets of a trillion of mysteries each; formed by a fusion which is, at the same time, a matter of choice and a matter of chance and a matter of pure enchantment; thus formed and then perm..
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love
consciousness
child
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Vladimir Nabokov |
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a5338ad
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In fact I believe that one day a reappraiser will come and declare that, far from having been a frivolous firebird, I was a rigid moralist: kicking sin, cuffing stupidity, ridiculing the vulgar and cruel--and assigning sovereign power to tenderness, talent and pride.
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Vladimir Nabokov |
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19c697b
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A sunset, almost formidable in its splendor, would be lingering in the fully exposed sky. Among its imperceptibly changing amassments, one could pick out brightly stained structural details of celestial organisms, or glowing slits in dark banks, or flat, ethereal beaches that looked like mirages of desert islands. I did not know then (as I know perfectly well now) what to do with such things--how to get rid of them, how to transform them in..
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writing
observation
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Vladimir Nabokov |
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fcd677f
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It is childish to study a work of fiction in order to gain information about a country or about a social class or about the author.
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Vladimir Nabokov |
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daeaf6a
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Queer, how I misinterpreted the designations of doom.
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lolita
doomed
foreshadowing
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Vladimir Nabokov |
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5f6f8c3
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In accordance with the law the death sentence was announced to Cincinnatus C. in a whisper.
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Vladimir Nabokov |
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0f6ac0d
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Beaming and melting in smiles of benevolence and self-effacement, they sidled up and plumped down next to Lucette, who turned to them with her last, last, last free gift of staunch courtesy that was stronger than failure and death.
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Vladimir Nabokov |
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f0fdbb9
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Geniusz to brak przystosowania.
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separateness
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Vladimir Nabokov |
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0ffbd31
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We are still groping perhaps, but we grope intelligently, like a gynecologist feeling a tumor.
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Vladimir Nabokov |
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b5d3384
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My heart seemed everywhere at once.
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Vladimir Nabokov |
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d6ceefb
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Resemblances are the shadows of differences. Different people see different similarities and similar differences.
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Vladimir Nabokov |
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dc94ae9
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The Girl Scout's motto is also mine. I fill my life with worthwhile deeds such as -- well, never mind what. My duty is --to be useful. I am a friend to male animals. I am cheerful. I am thrifty and I am absolutely filthy in thought, word, and deed.
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Vladimir Nabokov |
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28376bc
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Because of a streak of dreaminess and a gentle abstraction in his nature, Victor in any queue was always at its very end. He had long since grown used to this handicap, as one grows used to weak sight or a limp.
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Vladimir Nabokov |
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24fc542
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There is nothing louder than an American hotel; and, mind you, this was supposed to be a quiet, cozy, old-fashioned, homey place - 'gracious living' and all that stuff.
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Vladimir Nabokov |
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5d48f41
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To be quite candid -- and what I am going to say now is something I have never said before, and I hope that it provokes a salutary chill -- I know more than I can express in words, and the little I can express would not have been expressed, had I not known more.
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Vladimir Nabokov |
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14d78b2
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Because you took advantage of a sinner Because you took advantage Because you took because you took advantage of my disadvantage
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Vladimir Nabokov |
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4c26b97
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My delightful, my love, my life, I don't understand anything: how can you not be with me? I'm so infinitely used to you that I now feel myself lost and empty: without you, my soul. You turn my life into something light, amazing, rainbowed--you put a glint of happiness on everything--always different: sometimes you can be smoky-pink, downy, sometimes dark, winged--and I don't know when I love your eyes more--when they are open or shut. It's ..
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Vladimir Nabokov |
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ad43861
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Fame in our day is too common to be confused with the enduring glow around the deserving book.
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Vladimir Nabokov |
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aa1d025
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If his Russian was music, his English was murder.
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Vladimir Nabokov |
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3d9afcc
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Her hair was well brushed that day and sheened darkly in contrast with the lusterless pallor of her neck and arms. She wore the striped tee shirt which in his lone fantasies he especially liked to peel off her twisting torso. The oilcloth was divided into blue and white squares. A smear of honey stained what remained of the butter in its cool crock. 'All right. And the third Real Thing?' She considered him. A fiery droplet in the wick of he..
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Vladimir Nabokov |
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c1dfd1e
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Without you I wouldn't have moved this way, to speak the language of flowers.
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Vladimir Nabokov |
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a1451f2
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La mire y la mire, y supe con tanta certeza como que me he de morir, que la queria mas que a nada imaginado o visto en la tierra, mas que a nada anhelado en este mundo.
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Vladimir Nabokov |
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9872d83
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If told I am a bad poet, I smile; but if told I am a poor scholar, I reach for my heaviest dictionary.
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Vladimir Nabokov |
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f514e82
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The recollection also came back empty, and for the first time in all his life, perhaps, Luzhin asked himself the question - where exactly had it all gone, what had become of his childhood, whither had the veranda floated, whither, rustling through the bushes, had the familiar paths crept away?
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Vladimir Nabokov |
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6ffc0cd
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No, I have as yet said nothing, or, rather, said only bookish words... and in the end the logical thing would be for me to give up and I would give up if I were labouring for a reader existing today, but as there is in the world not a single human who can speak my language; or, more simply, not a single human who can speak; or, even more simply, not a single human; I must think only of myself, of that force which urges me to express myself.
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Vladimir Nabokov |
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9eb28fb
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Where is the happiness, the sunshine, where are those thick skittles of wood which crashed and bounced so nicely, where is my bicycle with the low handlebars and the big gear? It seems there's a law which says that nothing ever vanishes, that matter is indestructible; therefore the chips from my skittles and the spokes of my bicycle still exist somewhere to this day. The pity of it is that I'll never find them again - never.
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nostalgic
growing-up
melancholy
remembering
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Vladimir Nabokov |
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4403916
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When stripped and shiny in the mist of the bath house, his bold virilia contrasted harshly with his girlish grace. He was a regular faunlet.
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Vladimir Nabokov |
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1112bfa
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Wanted, wanted: Dolores Haze. Hair: brown. Lips: scarlet. Age: five thousand three hundred days. Profession: none, or "starlet". Where are you hiding, Dolores Haze? Why are you hiding, darling? (I talk in a daze, I walk in a maze, I cannot get out, said the starling)." --
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vladimir-nabokov
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Vladimir Nabokov |
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7c815cb
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How can I explain to you, my happiness, my golden wonderful happiness, how much I am all yours -- with all my memories, poems, outbursts, inner whirlwinds? Or explain that I cannot write a word without hearing how you will pronounce it -- and can't recall a single trifle I've lived through without regret -- so sharp! -- that we haven't lived through it together -- whether it's the most, the most personal, intransmissible -- or only some sun..
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Vladimir Nabokov |
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010a00e
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And to fulfill the fish wish of the womb, A school of Freudians headed for the tomb.
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Vladimir Nabokov |
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a3e2b38
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I feel I understand Existence, or at least a minute part Of my existence, only through my art,
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Vladimir Nabokov |
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a532e34
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Sometimes, though, angels smoke-in their sleeves. But when the archangel goes by, they throw their cigarettes away: This is what falling stars are.
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Vladimir Nabokov |
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66f1374
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I would fight of course. Oh, I would fight. Better destroy everything than surrender her.
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obsessed
obsessions
possessiveness
obsession
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Vladimir Nabokov |
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0291b68
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If there is anything of which I am certain in life it is that I shall never exchange the liberty of my exile for the vile parody of home.
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Vladimir Nabokov |
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6b7c3f9
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Although there is plenty of space on a gravestone to contain, bound in moss, the abridged version of a man's life, detail is always welcome.
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Vladimir Nabokov |
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95c6a3f
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And finally: I reserve for myself the right to yearn after an ecological niche: ...Beneath the sky Of my America to sigh For one locality in Russia. (a passage not for 'general readers' but for 'idiots')
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politics-is-local
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Vladimir Nabokov |
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c1e8b71
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Old birds like Orlovius are wonderfully easy to lead by the beak, because a combination of decency and sentimentality is exactly equal to being a fool.
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Vladimir Nabokov |
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b9b60dd
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And perhaps it was precisely because she knew nothing at all about chess that chess for her was not simply a parlor game or a pleasant pastime, but a mysterious art equal to all the recognized arts. She had never been in close contact with such people -- there was no one to compare him with except those inspired eccentrics, musicians and poets whose image one knows as clearly and as vaguely as that of a Roman Emperor, an inquisitor or a com..
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mistery-men
chess
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Vladimir Nabokov |
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c416fa5
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Ho notato spesso che siamo inclini a dotare i nostri amici della stabilita tipologica che nella mente del lettore acquistano i personaggi letterari. Per quante volte possiamo riaprire , non troveremo mai il buon re che fa gazzarra e picchia il boccale sul tavolo, dimentico di tutte le sue pene, durante un'allegra riunione con tutte e tre le figlie e i loro cani da compagnia. Mai Emma si riavra, animata dai sali soccorrevoli contenuti nella..
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Vladimir Nabokov |
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bddfc6f
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Oh, Lolita, you are my girl, as Vee was Poe's and Bea Dante's, and what little girl would not like to whirl in a circular skirt and scanties?
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Vladimir Nabokov |
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d3712c7
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Since I sometimes won the race between my fancy and nature's reality - the deception was bearable.
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Vladimir Nabokov |