Is your Russian origin an asset or a liability?
My most precious possession is my Russian language. In a sense I inherited my own self.
Do you not find Switzerland dull? Does your choice of Switzerland imply a rejection of America?
I find nothing more tedious than the political passions in less fortunate countries than Switzerland. There is peace and justice here. I confess I prefer one honest Swiss merchant to a dozen mediocre poets in any country. A street in a Swiss town is just as noisy as a street in Boston or Baghdad. There is nothing more anonymous and leveling than poverty. As to my residence in Switzerland, my choice is prompted not only by the absence of political turmoil but also by family considerations….I think of America with nostalgic love and hope to go back there as soon as I can muster sufficient energy. I am a very sluggish person and get easily accustomed to this or that comfortable nook.
Why do you engage in so much wordplay?
The wordplay that so dazzles my critics is merely a handful of confetti scattered on a threshold.
Does the sociologese of most contemporary fiction in America disturb you?
I have never understood why a story about, say, a generalized family of winegrowers, or a sociologically slanted novel about a factory worker, should be supposed to produce a greater impression of reality and be of more interest than the life story of, say, an obscure botanist. All individual milieux and realities are limited: it is not only an artistic, but also an organic principle.
* “La scherma di Nabokov” (“Nabokov’s Fencing”), Corriere della sera, Oct. 30, 1969, 12. Typescripts, in English, VNA Berg. Conducted on same day as the Tumiati interview, above.