Vladimir Nabokov Quotes


Direct interference in a person's life does not enter our scope of activity, nor, on the other, tralatitiously speaking, hand, is his destiny a chain of predeterminate links: some 'future' events may be linked to others, O.K., but all are chimeric, and every cause-and-effect sequence is always a hit-and-miss affair, even if the lunette has actually closed around your neck, and the cretinous crowd holds its breath.


Citations

Nabokov, Vladimir. Transparent Things. McGraw-Hill, 1972, p. 92.

Related Quotes

Vladimir Nabokov
Vladimir Nabokov
  • Born: April 22, 1899
  • Died: July 2, 1977
  • Nationality: American
  • Profession: Novelist, Professor

Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov, also known by the pen name Vladimir Sirin (Владимир Сирин), was a Russian-American novelist, poet, translator, and entomologist. Born in Russia, he wrote his first nine novels in Russian (1926–1938) while living in Berlin. He achieved international acclaim and prominence after moving to the United States and beginning to write in English. Nabokov became an American citizen in 1945, but he and his wife returned to Europe in 1961, settling in Montreux, Switzerland.