Vladimir Nabokov


 “Suddenly for no earthly reason I felt immensely sorry for him and longed to say something real, something with wings and a heart, but the birds I wanted settled on my shoulders and head only later when I was alone and not in need of words.” 

― Vladimir Nabokov, The Real Life of Sebastian Knight

“There is an old American saying 'He who lives in a glass house should not try to kill two birds with one stone.” 
― Vladimir Nabokov, Pnin

John Ashbery

  The New Spirit (excerpt) I thought that if I could put it all down, that would be one way. And next the thought came to me that to leave a...