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Vladimir Nabokov Quotes about Children

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I think like a genius, I write like a distinguished author, and I speak like a child.

I think like a genius, I write like a distinguished author, and I speak like a child.

Vladimir Nabokov
Children, Writing, Thinking
Strong Opinions (1973) foreword

I looked and looked at her, and I knew, as clearly as I know that I will die, that I loved her more than anything I had ever seen or imagined on earth. She was only the dead-leaf echo of the nymphet from long ago - but I loved her, this Lolita, pale and polluted and big with another man's child. She could fade and wither - I didn't care. I would still go mad with tenderness at the mere sight of her face.

Vladimir Nabokov
Children, Men, Echoes
"Fictional character: Humbert". "Lolita", www.imdb.com. 1997.

Imagination without knowledge leads no farther than the back yard of primitive art, the child's scrawl on the fence, and the crank's message in the market place. Art is never simple.

Vladimir Nabokov
Art, Children, Simple

I grew, a happy, healthy child in a bright world of illustrated books, clean sand, orange trees, friendly dogs, sea vistas and smiling faces.

Vladimir Nabokov
Dog, Children, Book
Vladimir Nabokov (2011). “The Annotated Lolita: Revised and Updated”, p.64, Vintage

You have to be an artist and a madman, a creature of infinite melancholy, with a bubble of hot poison in your loins and a super-voluptuous flame permanently aglow in your subtle spine (oh, how you have to cringe and hide!), in order to discern at once, by ineffable signs―the slightly feline outline of a cheekbone, the slenderness of a downy limbs, and other indices which despair and shame and tears of tenderness forbid me to tabulate―the little deadly demon among the wholesome children; she stands unrecognized by them and unconscious herself of her fantastic power.

Vladimir Nabokov
Children, Artist, Flames
Vladimir Nabokov (2011). “The Annotated Lolita: Revised and Updated”, p.72, Vintage

Alas! In vain historians pry and probe: The same wind blows, and in the same live robe Truth bends her head to fingers curved cupwise; And with a woman's smile and a child's care Examines something she is holding there Concealed by her own shoulder from our eyes.

Vladimir Nabokov
Children, Truth, Eye
Vladimir Nabokov, Michael Scammell (1963). “The gift”

All at once we were madly, clumsily, shamelessly, agonizingly in love with each other; hopelessly, I should add, because that frenzy of mutual possession might have been assuaged only by our actually imbibing and assimilating every particle of each other's soul and flesh; but there we were, unable even to mate as slum children would have so easily found an opportunity to do so.

Vladimir Nabokov
Children, Opportunity, Soul
Vladimir Nabokov (2010). “Lolita”, p.12, Vintage

There is nothing more atrociously cruel than an adored child.

Vladimir Nabokov
Children
Vladimir Nabokov (2016). “Lolita”, p.90, Hamilton Books

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.

Vladimir Nabokov
Children, Distance, Party

I believe the poor fierce-eyed child had figured out that with a mere fifty dollars in her purse she might somehow reach Broadway or Hollywood - or the foul kitchen of a diner (Help Wanted) in a dismal ex-prairie state, with the wind blowing, and the stars blinking, and the cars, and the bars, and the barmen, and everything soiled, torn, dead.

Vladimir Nabokov
Stars, Children, Believe
Vladimir Nabokov (2011). “The Annotated Lolita: Revised and Updated”, p.263, Vintage

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