Nabokov on his internal monologue

A crude portrait of Vladimir Nabokov in the style of the NPC meme.

What language do you think in?

I don’t think in any language. I think in images. I don’t believe that people think in languages. They don’t move their lips when they think. It is only a certain type of illiterate person who moves his lips as he reads or ruminates. No, I think in images, and now and then a Russian phrase or an English phrase will form with the foam of the brainwave, but that’s about all.

Vladimir Nabokov in a 1962 interview to BBC Television published in Strong Opinions1973.

In 2018 I saw the NPC meme emerge in online discussions about people who claimed to have no inner speech. This quote came to mind.