Language Quote by Herman Wouk

I taught myself Russian, which was very, very useful, especially for poetry and in fact if you can't read Pushkin in Russian, you're really…

— Clive James

“The translator's task is essentially a difficult and often a thankless one. He is severely criticized if he makes a mistake, but only faintly…

— Eugene A. Nida

“So many people consider their work a daily punishment. Whereas I love my work as a translator. Translation is a journey over a sea…

— Amara Lakhous

A translator is to be like his author; it is not his business to excel him.

— Samuel Johnson

When you have those two languages - an analytic one like English and a synthetic, very sensual thing like Russian, you get almost a…

— Joseph Brodsky

“...For all the profound human modesty of Comrade Stalin,he will have to tolerate our outpourings of love and loyalty to him[applause],because not only we,who…

— Anatoli Rybakov

Translation is a disturbing craft because there is precious little certainty about what we are doing, which makes it so difficult in this age…

— Gregory Rabassa

For Russians, to whom Pushkin's poem 'Eugene Onegin' is sacred text, the ballet's story and personae are as familiar and filled with meaning as,…

— Robert Gottlieb

Non-Russian readers do not realize two things: that not all Russians love Dostoievsky as much as Americans do, and that most of those Russians…

— Vladimir Nabokov

When I write, I don't translate for white readers.... Dostoevski wrote for a Russian audience, but we're able to read him. If I'm specific,…

— Toni Morrison

I'm told that a couple of my Russian translations are just plain terrible, though, and there may be others.

— Charles Stross

I could never see a book written in a foreign language without the most ardent desire to read it.

— Bayard Taylor