How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Section.Paragraph)
Quote #16
From him I learned, and have preserved ever since in a glass cell of my memory, that "butterfly" in the Basque language is misericoletea—or at least it sounded so (among the seven words I have found in dictionaries the closest approach is micheletea). (7.2.4)
Sometimes in memory, even words can transform to become more correct, truer. Think of "misericoletea"—which means nothing (in English, at least) but sounds gorgeous, and holds in it the word "misery." Even if it's not accurate, the word is still true, in this way: butterflies, in Nabokov's estimation are pretty and frustrating and fascinating and constantly flying out of reach.
Quote #17
So great was my emotion that all I could think of saying was, "You little monkey." (7.3.4)
Vladimir meets Colette on a beach vacation. It's his first crush. He's filled with emotion, overwhelmed. Here, as elsewhere in the book, we can see the space between emotions and speech. With this Nabokov seems to be saying: not one of us may ever communicate the full wealth of our inner lives, no matter how many languages we have.
Quote #18
No wonder he was also an admirable speaker, an "English style" cool orator, who eschewed the meat-chopping gesture and rhetorical bark of the demagogue, and here, too, the ridiculous cacologist I am, when not having a typed sheet before me, has inherited nothing. (8.1.6)
Here language becomes characterization and identity. Nabokov's father may speak clearly and confidently, while Nabokov (as we've learned reading) takes a little longer to get to the point.