What did Nabokov and Joyce have in common, apart from the poor teeth and the great prose? Exile, and decades of near pauperism.

Only in art will the lion lie down with the lamb, and the rose grow without thorn.

Religious belief is without reason and without dignity, and its record is near-universally dreadful.

Probably human cruelty is fixed and eternal. Only styles change.

My life looked good on paper - where, in fact, almost all of it was being lived.

When the past is forgotten, the present is unforgettable

Closure is a greasy little word which, moreover, describes a nonexistent condition. The truth, Venus, is that nobody gets over anything.

Perhaps there are other bits of my life that would take on content, take on shadow, if only I read more and thought less about money.

When you’ve lost all your play, guess what love becomes. Work. Work that gets harder every hour.

Love is blind; but it makes you see the blind man; teetering on the roadside . . .

Every 10 years you're a different person, and the really great books evolve with you as you get older. They're full of new rewards.

If she does not respect you, she will replace you.

You can't be a victim and heal.

I appreciate all the people that can respect and appreciate my music.

I love anything really feminine. I love any sort of girly detail - anything with a bow or a heart on it, I'm immediately in love with.

The role of the infinitely small in nature is infinitely great.

A country without bordellos is like a house without bathrooms.

There are more Negroes in jail with me than there are on the voting rolls.

For Christians this present life is the closest they will come to Hell. For unbelievers, it is the closest they will come to Heaven.

Whatever landscape a child is exposed to early on, that will be the sort of gauze through which he or she will see all the world afterwards.

We talk little when we do not talk about ourselves.