Vladimir Nabokov
From the history of American television:
In the 1950’s
ABC television Close-up! documentary series, John Daly interviews Vladimir Nabokov and Lionel Trilling, pt. 1—5:41
video—pt. 2 5:51
video
Nabokov lispingly delivers dismissive apothegms in an effete and frivolous style inevitably reminding one of
Anthony Blanche, while Trilling is earnest, grave, serious, and sometimes just a bit obsequious.
Great lines:
“I don’t want to touch hearts, and I don’t even want to affect minds very much. What I want to produce is really that little sob in the spine of the artist reader. I leave the field of ideas to Doctor Schweitzer and Doctor Zhivago.”
“It was fun to breed her in my laboratory,” says Vladimir Nabokov of Lolita.