As a true translator you will take care not to translate…

“But Spanish and English aren't different languages, only extreme dialects of Latin. It's almost possible to translate word for word. Translation from a language…

— Natasha Pulley

I think that if you are sticking to the text, essentially, you're not trying to write your own version of it. I mean, of…

— Ann Goldstein

I have always maintained that translation is essentially the closest reading one can possibly give a text. The translator cannot ignore "lesser" words, but…

— Gregory Rabassa

I think every translator would tell you that when they look back at a poem they have translated, they want to pencil in changes.…

— Jesse Lee Kercheval

Thomas Teal, a luminous translator of Jansson's twin talent for surface and depth, simplicity and reverberation in language, and someone who knows exactly how…

— Ali Smith

It's important to get a translator who will ask the questions in a sensitive and thoughtful way. Knowing the ethnicity issues, the tribal issues…

— Peter Menzel

It seems more than likely that the translating of poetry is going to rub off on the translator if he or she is a…

— Ron Padgett

Even a poor translator couldn't kill a style that moves with such narrative clarity.

— William Zinsser

A poet is the translator of the silent language of nature to the world.

— Rufus Wilmot Griswold

I think that being an editor, someone who works with words, is very good training for being a translator because it trains you to…

— Ann Goldstein

the translator, a lonely sort of acrobat, becomes confused in a labyrinth of paradox, or climbs a pyramid of dependent clauses and has to…

— Lydia Davis

Please, never despise the translator. He's the mailman of human civilization.

— Alexander Pushkin

What is the task of the translator? I think the task depends on the book and on the translator.

— Idra Novey

A translator is essentially a reader and we all read differently, except that a translator's reading remains in unchanging print

— Gregory Rabassa

A satisfactory translation is not always possible, but a good translator is never satisfied with it. It can usually be improved. (Newmark)

— Peter Newmark