Vladimir Nabokov Quotes

A writer should have the precision of a poet and the imagination of a scientist.

Vladimir Nabokov

• Writing
• Imagination
• Poet
• Scientist

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Quotes to Explore

• I've always written songs that were confessional, acoustic, wordy - my writing style matches my personality. The music always has to match the mouth it comes out of.

  

  Camila Cabello Fifth Harmony
  • Music
  • Writing
  • Style

• I don't talk about Amy Winehouse as a 'singer.' She's a pioneer. I listened to her endlessly when I started writing.

  

  Laura Mvula
  • Writing
  • Talk
  • Singer

• I like writing flawed women, and being one, it's something I feel I can write with some veracity and authority.

  

  Callie Khouri
  • Writing
  • Women
  • Feel

• Writing my first book, I think in hindsight I went into it saying, 'It's gonna sell.' I was earning enough to scrape by sometime around a book or two before 'Tell No One.' I moved up from $50,000 to $75,000, then $150,000 for each book. I had never thought I would be doing anything else. I had enough encouragement.

  

  Harlan Coben
  • Up
  • Writing
  • Book

• People say, 'How does having kids change your writing? Do you see the world through their eyes?' No - you just become a faster songwriter... In the old days, you'd be like, 'Oh I'm gonna work on this song for a few days.'

  

  Eddie Vedder Pearl Jam
  • People
  • World
  • Work

• I've been writing for a long time. I sat down to write my first novel in the middle of March of 1982.

  

  J. A. Jance
  • Time
  • Long
  • Writing

• Writing about a person whose struggle you wish you could solve is an act of compassion and also, frankly, opportunism.

  

  Karen Bender
  • Writing
  • Wish
  • Struggle

• I can ask for a £25,000 advance, but then you spend a year writing the book, and £25,000 is a loan against sales, and you can easily spend five years earning out. So that's £25,000 for six years.

  

  Mal Peet
  • Writing
  • Book
  • Year

• The debt we owe to the play of imagination is incalculable.

  

  Carl Jung
  • Play
  • Imagination
  • Debt

• Writing does produce a very unique satisfaction. There are times when I'm writing that it's frustrating or appalling or difficult, but when it goes well, it goes really well, and there is a feeling of rightness, like I'm doing the thing I was meant to do, almost in a mystical way, like I'm at an appropriate angle to the world.

  

  Rachel Kushner
  • World
  • Writing
  • Feeling

• You could take away the singing, and I am fine. But don't take away my gift of writing. It is the best way I can relate and express what I am feeling and what I am going through.

  

  BeBe Winans
  • Writing
  • Feeling
  • Singing

• I love writing two narratives! I think concurrent storylines are my favorite way to write a book.

  

  Taylor Jenkins Reid
  • Writing
  • Love
  • Book

• The most difficult and complicated part of the writing process is the beginning.

  

  A. B. Yehoshua
  • Writing
  • Beginning
  • Process

• I mean, the wonderful thing about writing a book is that you're getting a finished product at the end of the day. You're communicating directly with the reader.

  

  Gary Ross
  • Writing
  • Book
  • Day

• A lazy man works twice as hard. My mother told that to me, and now I say it to my kids. If you're writing an essay, keep it in the lines and in the margins so you don't have to do it over.

  

  Gary Oldman
  • Writing
  • Kids
  • Mother

• The nice thing about writing at home is that it's almost as though I'm doing it already. I get out of bed thinking of my work, and I don't have to go anywhere to do it.

  

  Patrick deWitt
  • Work
  • Thinking
  • Writing

• There are few cases in which mere popularity should be considered a proper test of merit; but the case of song-writing is, I think, one of the few.

  

  Edgar Allan Poe
  • Writing
  • Think
  • Song

• Whenever you're writing something that's reflective, you have to put yourself through some sort of ordeal just to understand the way you're feeling.

  

  Damon Albarn Gorillaz
  • Writing
  • Feeling
  • Yourself

• My first seven novels were contemporary spiritual novels, my next nine had strong elements of fantasy, and now I'm writing thrillers, more as a choice to spread my wings than anything. Writers, like good wine, should mature with age.

  

  Ted Dekker
  • Good
  • Writing
  • Age

• Logic and fact keep interfering with the easy flow of conversation.

  

  Mason Cooley
  • Logic

• I'm a big fan of lyrics - lyrics are the thing that move me in certain ways.

  

  Joe Cole
  • Lyrics

• I'm not interested in selling out my career for a big paycheck. I would love to live a little more comfortably, but it is very important for me to try and maintain my soul and integrity as a filmmaker in as big of a way as possible.

  

  Daryl Wein
  • Important
  • Trying
  • Integrity

• What [Donald] has put up for question is this idea of tariffs. Initially, he said if China won't stop taking advantage of us and manipulating their currency, then I will put tariffs in place. That spooked everybody because if you charge China a fee and an extra tariff for anything they bring into the United States, what's going to happen is that companies carrying those goods are going to raise prices. It's going to be expensive for people. People got scared of that, but then he walked that [idea] back. I don't think anybody is expecting heavy tariffs on anything.

  

  Maria Bartiromo
  • People
  • Up
  • Stop

• A writer should have the precision of a poet and the imagination of a scientist.

  

  Vladimir Nabokov
  • Writing
  • Imagination
  • Poet