Nicholas Van

Famous quotes containing the words nicholas and/or van:

    on a Saterday
    This carpenter was goon til Oseney,
    And hende Nicholas and Alisoun
    Accorded been to this conclusioun,
    That Nicholas shal shapen hem a wile
    This sely jalous housbonde to bigile,
    Geoffrey Chaucer (1340?–1400)

    His reversed body gracefully curved, his brown legs hoisted like a Tarentine sail, his joined ankles tacking, Van gripped with splayed hands the brow of gravity, and moved to and fro, veering and sidestepping, opening his mouth the wrong way, and blinking in the odd bilboquet fashion peculiar to eyelids in his abnormal position. Even more extraordinary than the variety and velocity of the movements he made in imitation of animal hind legs was the effortlessness of his stance.
    Vladimir Nabokov (1899–1977)