I always call him Lewis Carroll Carroll, because he was the first Humbert Humbert.

Theoretically there is no absolute proof that one's awakening in the morning (the finding oneself again in the saddle of one's personality) is not really a quite unprecedented event, a perfectly original birth.

Age indomitably, in the European manner. Do not finish your labours young. Be a planet, not a meteor. Honor the working day. Sit at your desk.

I think like a genius, I write like a distinguished author, and I speak like a child.... My hemmings and hawings over the telephone cause long-distance callers to switch from their native English to pathetic French. At parties, if I attempt to entertain people with a good story, I have to go back to every other sentence for oral erasures and inserts.... In these circumstances nobody should ask me to submit to an interview if by "interview" a chat between two normal human beings is implied.

And she was mine, she was mine, the key was in my fist, my fist was in my pocket, she was mine.

Life is a message scribbled in the dark.

As to the rest, I am no more guilty of imitating 'real life' than'real life' is responsible for plagiarizing me.