I see again my schoolroom in Vyra, the blue roses of the wallpaper, the open window.… Everything is as it should be, nothing will ever change, nobody will ever die.

In this crazy mirror of terror and art a pseudo-quotation made up of obscure Shakespeareanisms (Chapter Three) somehow produces, despite its lack of literal meaning, the blurred diminutive image of the acrobatic performance that so gloriously supplies the bravura ending for the next chapter.

Adultery is a most conventional way to rise above the conventional.

My own ultraviolet darling. " Lolita

We live not only in a world of thoughts, but also in a world of things. Words without experience are meaningless.

I still dwelled deep in my elected paradise--a paradise whose skies were the color of hell-flames--but still a paradise.

Style and Structure are the essence of a book; great ideas are hogwash.