Balzac Quote by Andre Naffis-Sahely

“The translator, we should know, is a writer too. As a matter of fact, he could be called the ideal writer because all he…

— Gregory Rabassa

“Intrinsic to the concept of a translator's fidelity to the effect and impact of the original is making the second version of the work…

— Edith Grossman

Regardless of whether the authors I've translated have been "dead and canonized," or "living and established," or even simply "emerging," I must put myself…

— Andre Naffis-Sahely

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

— Idra Novey

I encourage the translators of my books to take as much license as they feel that they need. This is not quite the heroic…

— Michael Cunningham

To write that essential book, a great writer does not need to invent it but merely to translate it, since it already exists in…

— Marcel Proust

I tend to be kind of literal about translation. I think it's important to present the writer as closely as possible.

— Ann Goldstein

To have the translator be a figure in the book's presentation seems like a big thing, especially for a book that's really popular.

— Ann Goldstein

I've never translated more than one book by any author. But I'm fascinated by translators who have, like Richard Zenith, who's translated so much…

— Idra Novey

“Translators are the shadow heroes of literature.”

— Paul Auster

The writing I do makes great demands on translators.

— W. G. Sebald

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…

— Lydia Davis