Here lies the sense of literary creation to portray ordinary objects as they will be reflected in kindly mirrors of future times. . . . To find in objects around us the fragrant tenderness that only posterity will discern . . .
Vladimir NabokovCuriously enough, one cannot read a book; one can only reread it. A good reader, a major reader, and active and creative reader is a rereader.
Vladimir NabokovMy private tragedy, which cannot, and indeed should not, be anybody's concern, is that I had to abandon my natural idiom, my untrammeled, rich, and infinitely docile Russian tongue for a second-rate brand of English, devoid of any of those apparatusesโthe baffling mirror, the black velvet backdrop, the implied associations and traditionsโwhich the native illusionist, frac-tails flying, can magically use to transcend the heritage in his own way.
Vladimir Nabokov