I do not see any essential difference between abstract and primitive art. Both are simple and sincere. Naturally, we should not generalize in these matters: It is the individual artist that counts.
Vladimir NabokovWas she really beautiful? Was she at least what they call attractive? She was exasperation, she was torture.
Vladimir NabokovAnd yet I adore him. I think he's quite crazy, and with no place or occupation in life, and far from happy, and philosophically irresponsible โ and there is absolutely nobody like him.
Vladimir NabokovWe all have such fateful objects -- it may be a recurrent landscape in one case, a number in another -- carefully chosen by the gods to attract events of specific significance for us: here shall John always stumble; there shall Jane's heart always break.
Vladimir NabokovLiterature, real literature, must not be gulped down like some potion which may be good for the heart or good for the brainโthe brain, that stomach of the soul. Literature must be taken and broken to bits, pulled apart, squashedโthen its lovely reek will be smelt in the hollow of the palm, it will be munched and rolled upon the tongue with relish; then, and only then, its rare flavor will be appreciated at its true worth and the broken and crushed parts will again come together in your mind and disclose the beauty of a unity to which you have contributed something of your own blood.
Vladimir Nabokov