“Satire is a lesson, parody is a game.”

—  Vladimir Nabokov , book Strong Opinions

Interview with Nabokov http://lib.ru/NABOKOW/Inter06.txt_with-big-pictures.html conducted on September 25, 27, 28, 29, 1966, at Montreux, Switzerland and published in Wisconsin Studies in Contemporary Literature, vol. VIII, no. 2, spring 1967.
Source: Strong Opinions

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update Oct. 1, 2023. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Satire is a lesson, parody is a game." by Vladimir Nabokov?
Vladimir Nabokov photo
Vladimir Nabokov 193
Russian-American novelist, lepidopterist, professor 1899–1977

Related quotes

“Parodies are hard to do well, as is shown by the mediocrity of so many recent attempts. No matter how ripe a genre is for satirizing, unless you know how to do it, there are no guarantees.”

James Berardinelli (1967) American film critic

Review http://www.reelviews.net/movies/r/robin_tights.html of Robin Hood: Men in Tights (1993).
Two-and-a-half star reviews

P. J. O'Rourke photo

“There is parody, when you make fun of people who are smarter than you; satire, when you make fun of people who are richer than you; and burlesque, when you make fun of both while taking your clothes off.”

P. J. O'Rourke (1947) American journalist

Age and Guile Beat Youth, Innocence, and a Bad Haircut (2005)

Ayelet Waldman photo

“Dodgeball? My children were playing dodgeball? That cruel, brutal, violent schoolyard game so mercilessly satirized in the 2004 film with Ben Stiller? The game, more important, that exemplified everything that was wrong with my childhood in suburban New Jersey, a short, pasty-faced Jewish girl in a town full of scrubbed, blond, athletic WASPs, their long tanned limbs toned from years of tennis lessons and country club swim teams? Dodgeball? Over my dead body.”

Ayelet Waldman (1964) American- Israeli writer

Salon.com column http://www.salon.com/mwt/col/waldman/2005/06/06/dodgeball/index.html?sid=1350454

Al Franken photo

“In the United States of America, satire is protected speech, even if the object of the satire doesn’t get it.”

Al Franken (1951) American comedian and politician

As quoted in "The Trump Era Is Al Franken’s Time to Shine" by Graham Vyse, in New Republic (2 February 2017) https://newrepublic.com/article/140342/trump-era-al-frankens-time-shine

Juvenal photo

“It is difficult not to write satire.”
Difficile est saturam non scribere.

Juvenal book Satires

I, line 30.
Satires, Satire I

Tom Lehrer photo

“I think the people who say we need satire often mean, "We need satire of them, not of us."”

Tom Lehrer (1928) American singer-songwriter and mathematician

AV Club interview (2000)

François de La Rochefoucauld photo

“Satire is at once the most agreeable and most dangerous of mental qualities. It always pleases when it is refined, but we always fear those who use it too much, yet satire should be allowed when unmixed with spite, and when the person satirised can join in the satire. It is unfortunate to have a satirical turn without affecting to be pleased or without loving to jest.”

François de La Rochefoucauld (1613–1680) French author of maxims and memoirs

Reflections on Various Subjects (1665–1678), II. On Difference of Character

Lenny Bruce photo

“Satire is tragedy plus time. You give it enough time, the public, the reviewers will allow you to satirize it. Which is rather ridiculous, when you think about it.”

Lenny Bruce (1925–1966) comedian and social critic

Source: The Essential Lenny Bruce: his original unexpurgated satirical routines

Edward Young photo

“Tomorrow is a satire on today,
And shows its weakness.”

Edward Young (1683–1765) English poet

This is a quotation from "The Old Man's Relapse", a poem addressed to Edward Young, but written by Lord Melcombe.
Misattributed

John Dryden photo

“A satirical poet is the check of the laymen on bad priests.”

John Dryden book Fables, Ancient and Modern

Preface to the Fables.
Fables, Ancient and Modern (1700)

Related topics