Vladimir Nabokov Quotes

He was powerless because he had no precise desire, and this tortured him because he was vainly seeking something to desire. He could not even make himself stretch out his hand to switch on the light. The simple transition from intention to action seemed an unimaginable miracle.

Vladimir Nabokov

• Action
• Desire
• Simple
• Miracle

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Quotes to Explore

• I've always had an affinity for the fashion industry - I've always been drawn to it. But I grew up in Calgary in Canada, which, being a fairly isolated city, is not particularly known for having anything to do with fashion.

  

  Imran Amed
  • Up
  • City
  • Fashion

• Maybe I fear things going wrong so much that I pre-empt them by not getting excited about them when they appear to be. going well.

  

  Jack Dee
  • Fear
  • Excited
  • Maybe

• But when it came to jamming and writing songs like we used to, we realized Brandon was a huge spirit in the band. Who knew? It was just something we had to learn.

  

  Edie Brickell
  • Writing
  • Band
  • Learn

• Today, more than ever, citizens demand with good reason that moral and ethical principles be upheld and that exemplariness preside over our public life. And the king, as the head of state, must not only be an example but also a servant to that just and legitimate demand of the citizens.

  

  Felipe VI of Spain
  • Life
  • Good
  • Today

• Nuclear power is not a miracle key for the future.

  

  Tarja Halonen
  • Power
  • Future
  • Miracle

• The secret of all victory lies in the organization of the non-obvious.

  

  Oswald Spengler
  • Lies
  • Organization
  • Victory

• Art lies by its own artifice.

  

  Ovid
  • Art
  • Lies
  • Own

• In orthodox film-making, you never shoot sequentially - but with improv, obviously every move you make has a knock-on effect; it is a cumulative process. I have improvised, on the non-scripted 'Timecode.' It can become entirely indulgent: actors smashing crockery and competing verbally.

  

  Saffron Burrows
  • You
  • Never
  • Process

• I tell people all the time, 'Don't give up.' We get almost to our blessing, whether you believe spiritually in God or in a good force and an evil force. We get almost to our blessing, and we quit. Don't stop.

  

  Sam Childers
  • People
  • Up
  • Time

• Love doesn't just sit there, like a stone; it has to be made, like bread, remade all the time, made new.

  

  Ursula K. Le Guin
  • Time
  • Love
  • Made

• I'd started acting as a child. But I wanted to see if it was something my true personality was interested in. I stepped away from offers when I took five years off to go to college. I've only really just decided to whole-heartedly embrace acting.

  

  Gaby Hoffmann
  • True
  • College
  • Child

• I hate how late we have our Olympic Trials, always have.

  

  Natalie Coughlin
  • Hate
  • Always
  • Trials

• I am extremely lucky that I have a husband who is so supportive. He's not in the slightest bit jealous or worried about the things I do in certain scenes.

  

  Malin Akerman
  • Husband
  • Worried
  • Jealous

• I live in a bus and go from place to place and sometimes feel very detached from what's going on.

  

  Gavin DeGraw
  • Live
  • Sometimes
  • Bus

• I think that art is still a site for resistance and for the telling of various stories, for validating certain subjectivities we normally overlook. I'm trying to be affective, to suggest changes, and to resist what I feel are the tyrannies of social life on a certain level.

  

  Barbara Kruger
  • Life
  • Trying
  • Art

• I've approached every character I've ever played with a poem, first and foremost.

  

  Omari Hardwick
  • Character
  • First
  • Poem

• Music was in the air when I was growing up. My siblings Katy, Dave and Phil were musical; my dad worked in inner-city New York where a musical revolution was taking place - folk music, rock n' roll, gospel music. My sister taught me to sing. My brothers taught me to play.

  

  Sam Barry
  • Up
  • Music
  • Growing

• I am proud of where I came from, and I am proud of what I've been able to achieve through hard work and perseverance. And I guarantee you that anyone who tries to say otherwise hasn't walked a day in my shoes.

  

  Wendy Davis
  • Work
  • Day
  • Proud

• Παύροις γὰρ ἀνδρῶν ἐστι συγγενὲς τόδε,φίλον τὸν εὐτυχοῦντ' ἄνευ φθόνων σέβειν.

  

  Aeschylus

• For as we have many members in one body, and all members have not the same office: so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another.

  

  Joseph Butler

• We hated Bauhaus. It was a bad time in architecture. They just didn’t have any talent. All they had were rules. Even for knives and forks they created rules. Picasso would never have accepted rules. The house is like a machine? No! The mechanical is ugly. The rule is the worst thing. You just want to break it.

  

  Oscar Niemeyer
  • Time
  • Bad
  • House

• Here comes Johnny singing oldies, goldiesBe-Bop-A-Lula, Baby What I SayHere comes Johnny singing I Gotta WomanDown in the tunnels, trying to make it pay.He got the action, he got the motionOh yeah the boy can play.Dedication, devotionTurning all the night time into the day.

  

  Mark Knopfler Dire Straits
  • Time
  • Trying
  • Night

• He was powerless because he had no precise desire, and this tortured him because he was vainly seeking something to desire. He could not even make himself stretch out his hand to switch on the light. The simple transition from intention to action seemed an unimaginable miracle.

  

  Vladimir Nabokov
  • Action
  • Desire
  • Simple