Strong Opinions by Vladimir Nabokov – review

First published in 1973, this collection of interviews and essays offers an intriguing insight into one of the most brilliant authors of the 20th century. "I have always been a wretched speaker," he writes. "My vocabulary dwells deep in my mind and needs paper to wriggle out into the physical zone." Interviewers had to submit questions in advance and for recorded interviews he wrote his answers on cards, just as he composed his novels. "The artificial colour of human interest" has been ruthlessly excised and the discussion limited to his two passions – writing and butterfly hunting. He despised the idea of the author as celebrity: "I can quite understand people wanting to know my writings, but I cannot sympathise with anybody wanting to know me." The title is apt; Nabokov dismisses Freud as "the Viennese quack", Pound as "second-rate", while Dr Zhivago is "melodramatic and vilely written", and Finnegans Wake is a "cold pudding of a book". Nabokov admits to one failing: a "lack of spontaneity". Pedantic, bombastic, but always worth reading.