“Interviewer:What surprises you in life?Nabokov:...the marvel of consciousness- that sudden window swinging open on a sunlit landscape amidst the night of non-being.”

“What surprises you in life? The marvel of consciousness -- that sudden window swinging open on a sunlit landscape amidst the night of non-being.”

“Writing of Pushkin, Nabokov once observed quite accurately that his subject was the threefold formula of human life: the irretrievability of the past, the insatiability of the present, and the unforeseeability of the future.”

“all life is conscious, but it is not conscious of being conscious”

“On a whim, I once entered a neighbor's apartment through an open window and left a pink, glittery beach ball sitting on his bed, then left. I could have robbed him, but I just wanted the fun of fucking with him. In months that followed, I snuck into the same apartment time and time again, leaving birdcages, open umbrellas and even watermelons on that same bed.”

“Vail: "There are worse things than being shot at."Bannon: "Like...?"Vail: "Living a life where you're never shot at.”

“When you are born without the ordinary feelings and emotions shared by most other human beings, life looks different to you. It seems at times like a movie you’re walking through, more a spectator than a participant. There is above all a lack of empathy with most of mankind, a sense of detachment. But with detachment comes perspective. The less you care, the more you know, and the more you know the less you care.”