Vladimir Nabokov, Bend Sinister

3 quotes

"Devices which in some curious new way imitate nature are attractive to simple minds."

Vladimir Nabokov, Bend Sinister

"To each, or about each, of his colleagues he had said at one time or other, something... something impossible to recall in this or that case and difficult to define in general terms -- some careless bright and harsh trifle that had grazed a stretch of raw flesh."

Vladimir Nabokov, Bend Sinister

"Do all people have that? A face, a phrase, a landscape, an air bubble from the past suddenly floating up as if released by the head warden's child from a cell in the brain while the mind is at work on some totally different matter? Something of the sort also occurs just before falling asleep when what you think you are thinking is not at all what you think. Or two parallel passenger trains of thought, one overtaking the other."

Vladimir Nabokov, Bend Sinister