Quote

As far as modern writing is concerned, it is rarely rewarding to translate it, although it might be easy. Translation is very much like copying paintings.

If a translation doesn't have obvious writing problems, it may seem quite all right at first glance. We readers, after all, quickly adapt to the style of a translator, stop noticing it, and get caught up in the story.

I've done a lot of translation in TV, and I can do it. I'm trained to do it. I know how to inject a certain amount of my naturalness into that and where I come from into those things, but it helps if somebody's writing with my experience in mind.

Without translation, I would be limited to the borders of my own country. The translator is my most important ally. He introduces me to the world.

I am really looking for a chance to direct. I feel like that's kind of the next frontier for me. I know that it's really hard to do, but I feel like I want to have a chance to try and translate something I've written and try and get a tone across.

The best translations are always the ones in the language the author can't read.

I encourage the translators of my books to take as much license as they feel that they need. This is not quite the heroic gesture it might seem, because I've learned, from working with translators over the years, that the original novel is, in a way, a translation itself.

I always read the translator's draft all the way through - a very laborious business.

Of course we may have any number of translations of a given text - the more the better, really.

Yes, translation is by definition an inadequate substitute for being able to read a masterpiece in the original.