
Cassandra (1860)
Source: One Day
Cassandra (1860)
“Characters in novels are all fiction like the world they live in.”
Chin Wag At The Slaughterhouse (2013)
Context: Characters in novels are all fiction like the world they live in. Of course Vivien Lash has things in common with me but if she actually was me I wouldn’t have been able to invent her. And I’m not plotting to murder my husband!
The closest connection between me and my characters is that we live in a city that’s recognisable as London, but it’s a version of London that came out of my head.
“Independent character is like independent thought, it cannot be developed without criticism.”
Source: The Revolution Betrayed (1936), Ch. 7
"Miss Jean Stafford," p. 71
Essays in Disguise (1990)
As quoted in "Nabokov's Love Affairs" by R. W. Flint http://www.powells.com/review/2003_07_17.html in The New Republic (17 June 1957).
On a Book Entitled Lolita (1956)
“She liked Victorian novels. They were the only kind of novel you could read while eating an apple.”
Source: Cold Comfort Farm