Here’s Nabokov talking about his novel Lolita on a 1950s CBC program “Close Up.” The interview is at the height of the controversy surrounding the book, which was banned due to its theme of child molestation. When asked his intentions in writing it, Nabokov replies: “I don’t wish to touch hearts and I don’t even want to affect minds very much. What I want to do is produce that little sob in the spine of the artist reader.”
