The commentator may be excused for repeating what he has stressed in his own books and lectures, namely that "offensive" is frequently but a synonym for "unusual;" and a great work of art is of course always original, and thus by its very nature should come more or less as a shocking surprise.
Vladimir NabokovSome might think that the creativity, imagination, and flights of fancy that give my life meaning are insanity.
Vladimir NabokovDevices which in some curious new way imitate nature are attractive to simple minds.
Vladimir NabokovCoordinating there Events and objects with remote events And vanished objects. Making ornaments Of accidents and possibilities.
Vladimir NabokovThat swimming, sloping, elusive something about the dark-bluish tint of the iris which seemed still to retain the shadows it had absorbed of ancient, fabulous forests where there were more birds than tigers and more fruit than thorns, and where, in some dappled depth, man's mind had been born.
Vladimir Nabokov