With time in my hands I went to " The Oxford
Dictionary of Quotations". Nabokov was quoted only once and with a short
extract: "Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins".
In the "Oxford
Dictionary of Humorous Quotations" ( Ned Sherrin) he also was cited once, under
"Murder": "You can
always count on a murderer for a fancy prose
style."
At "The Essential Reference book": Who wrote
what when? Over a Thousand Writers from Douglas Adams to Emile Zola" ( Simon and
Shuster,1999) has a short entry about Nabokov, lists his publications from
1926 to 1957 ( i.e: from Mary to Pnin, totalling 10 books) and never a
word about "Ada or Ardor", "Look at the Harlequins", "Strong Opinions...
Its
closing lines are revelatory: after succintly describing "Nabokov's masterpiece,
Lolita" it ends with a shot: " Lolita was an instant success; it shot Nabokov to
fame and enabled him to devote himself to writing".