Laughter in the Dark Quotes

“A certain man once lost a diamond cuff-link in the wide blue sea, and twenty years later, on the exact day, a Friday apparently, he was eating a large fish - but there was no diamond inside. That’s what I like about coincidence.”
― Vladimir Nabokov, Laughter in the Dark

“Once upon a time there lived in Berlin, Germany, a man called Albinus. He was rich, respectable, happy; one day he abandoned his wife for the sake of a youthful mistress; he loved; was not loved; and his life ended in disaster.

This is the whole of the story and we might have left it at that had there not been profit and pleasure in the telling; and although there is plenty of space on a gravestone to contain, bound in moss, the abridged version of a man's life, detail is always welcome.”
― Vladimir Nabokov, Laughter in the Dark

“Death often is the point of life's joke.”
― Vladimir Nabokov, Laughter in the Dark

“[...] leaving for a day or two that hopeless sense of loss which makes beauty what it is: a distant lone tree against golden heavens; ripples of light on the inner curve of a bridge; a thing impossible to capture.”
― Vladimir Nabokov, Laughter in the Dark

“This is the whole of the story and we might have left it at that had there not been profit and pleasure in the telling; and although there is plenty of space on a gravestone to contain, bound in moss, the abridged version of a man's life, detail is always welcome.”
― Vladimir Nabokov, Laughter in the Dark

“No you can't take a pistol and plug a girl you don't even know simply because she attracts you.”
― Vladimir Nabokov, Laughter in the Dark

“Death," he had said on another occasion, "seems to be merely a bad habit, which nature is at present powerless to overcome.”
― Vladimir Nabokov, Laughter in the Dark

“Although there is plenty of space on a gravestone to contain, bound in moss, the abridged version of a man's life, detail is always welcome.”
― Vladimir Nabokov, Laughter in the Dark

“[S]urely the Cupid serving him was lefthanded, with a weak chin and no imagination.”
― Vladimir Nabokov, Laughter in the Dark

“Uncle alone in the house with the children said he'd dress up to amuse them. After a long wait, as he did not appear, they went down and saw a masked man putting the table silver into a bag. 'Oh, Uncle,' they cried in delight. 'Yes, isn't my make-up good?' said Uncle, taking his mask off. Thus goes the Hegelian syllogism of humour. Thesis: Uncle made himself up as a burglar (a laugh for the children); antithesis: it WAS a burglar (a laugh for the reader); synthesis: it still was Uncle (fooling the reader).”
― Vladimir Nabokov, Laughter in the Dark

“Everything was too quiet to be natural. It seemed as if the silence was rising, rising—would suddenly brim over and break into laughter.”
― Vladimir Nabokov, Laughter in the Dark

“Everything, even what was saddest and most shameful in his past life, was overlaid with the deceptive charm of colours. He was horrified to realize how little he had used his eyes - for these colours moved across too vague a background and their outlines were singularly blurred”
― Vladimir Nabokov, Laughter in the Dark

“Something was destroyed forever [...], everything would henceforward be tainted with a poisonous flavour of doubt”
― Vladimir Nabokov, Laughter in the Dark

“The past was safe in its cage. Why not have a look?”
― Vladimir Nabokov, Laughter in the Dark

“he loved; was not loved; and his life ended in disaster”
― Vladimir Nabokov, Laughter in the Dark

“The stage manager of this [life's] performance was neither God nor the devil. The former was far too gray, and venerable, and old-fashioned; and the latter, surfeited with other people’s sins, was a bore to himself and to others, as dull as rain … in fact, rain at dawn in the prison-court, where some poor imbecile, yawning nervously, is being quietly put to death for the murder of his grandmother. The stage manager whom Rex had in view was an elusive, double, triple, self-reflecting magic Proteus of a phantom, the shadow of many-colored glass balls flying in a curve, the ghost of a juggler on a shimmering curtain.”
― Vladimir Nabokov, Laughter in the Dark

“Death often is the point of life’s joke.”
― Vladimir Nabokov, Laughter in the Dark

“Когато забременя, очите ѝ придобиха онзи празен израз на задоволство, сякаш съзерцаваше новия си вътрешен свят; безгрижната й походка се превърна във внимателно патешко поклащане и беше способна лакомо да поглъща пълни шепи сняг, които събираше набързо, докато никой не я гледа. Албинус полагаше всички усилия да се грижи за нея – извеждаше я на дълги бавни разходки; внимаваше да си ляга рано и да не се удря в опасните ъгли на мебелите, докато минаваше покрай тях. А нощем сънуваше, че се натъква на младо момиче, което лежи с разперени ръце и крака на горещ пуст плаж, и в съня го обхващаше внезапен страх, че жена му ще го хване.”
― Vladimir Nabokov, Laughter in the Dark

“Въздухът беше натежал от сладникавата миризма на смокиново дърво, имаше я тази банална смесица от лунна светлина и далечна музика, която така въздейства на обикновените души.”
― Vladimir Nabokov, Laughter in the Dark

“Албинус никога преди не беше виждал сълзи с такъв размер и блясък.”
― Vladimir Nabokov, Laughter in the Dark

“Имало едно време в Берлин, Германия, един човек на име Албинус. Той бил богат, почтен, щастлив. Един ден напуснал жена си заради млада любовница. Обичал, не бил обичан и животът му завършил злополучно.
Това е цялата история и бихме могли да я оставим дотук, ако от разказването й нямаше полза и удоволствие; и въпреки че на надгробната плоча има достатъчно място за обраслата с мъх кратка версия на човешкия живот, подробностите винаги са добре дошли.”
― Vladimir Nabokov, Laughter in the Dark

“Той се ожени за нея, защото просто така се случи. Главният виновник за техния съюз беше едно пътуване до планината в нейната компания, плюс дебелия й брат и изключително атлетичната й братовчедка, която, слава богу, си изкълчи глезена в Понтресина. Имаше нещо толкова изискано, толкова ефирно в Елизабет, а смехът й бе така добродушен! За да избегнат набезите на множеството си берлински познати, те се ожениха в Мюнхен. Кестените тъкмо цъфтяха. Една много скъпа табакера се изгуби в тайнствена градина. Един от келнерите в хотела говореше седем езика. Оказа се, че Елизабет има нежен малък белег от операция на апандисит.
Тя беше вярна малка душичка, хрисима и нежна. Любовта й беше като бяла лилия, но понякога избухваше в пламъци и в такива моменти Албинус се самозалъгваше, че не му трябва никоя друга.”
― Vladimir Nabokov, Laughter in the Dark

“An electric milk van on fat tires rolling creamily.”
― Vladimir Nabokov, Laughter in the Dark

“He could not even see the bluish glimmer of a window or those faint patches of light which come to stay with the walls at night”
― Vladimir Nabokov, Laughter in the Dark

“Her love was of the lily variety”
― Vladimir Nabokov, Laughter in the Dark

“Blunders, gropings, disappointment; surely the Cupid serving him was left-handed, with a weak chin and no imagination. And alongside these feeble romances there had been hundreds of girls of whom he had dreamed but whom he had never got to know; they had just slid past him, leaving for a day or two that hopeless sense of loss which makes beauty what it is: a distant lone tree against golden heavens; ripples of light on the inner curve of a bridge; a thing quite impossible to capture”
― Vladimir Nabokov, Laughter in the Dark

“so that beautiful idea, which otherwise would have lingered on and perhaps found a wall on which to hang and blossom, had strangely faded and shrivelled in the course of the last week.”
― Vladimir Nabokov, Laughter in the Dark

“Марго бавно започна да се надига по-високо и по-високо, като змия, която се развива.”
― Vladimir Nabokov, Laughter in the Dark

“(Миналото беше на сигурно място в клетката. Защо да не погледне?)”
― Vladimir Nabokov, Laughter in the Dark

“Отто, Магдин брат, был старше сестры на три года, работал теперь на велосипедной фабрике, презрительно относился к бюргерскому республиканству отца и, сидя в ближайшем кабаке, рассуждал о политике, опускал с громовым стуком кулак на стол, восклицая: ‘Человек первым делом должен жрать, да!’ Такова была главная его аксиома — сама по себе довольно правильная.”
― Vladimir Nabokov, Laughter in the Dark