One naturally identifies to some extent with an "I" female narrator going through something that you recognize whether you've gone through it or not.

I always hesitate to say that something is lifelike.

The truth is, just to hear other people speaking Italian is really worth it. It keeps the sound in your ear.

It's one of the hardest things to translate anything that's not standard.

I have very strict rules in my head that seem to me to be the way things should sound.

I think that physical actions are always hard to describe, to translate.

That's a huge subject - a writer refusing to do publicity but writing about publicity.

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.

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

If you’re going to give up after few attempts, bear it in mind that your struggles are going to be wasted.

Your heart has a deeper intelligence than your mind ever will.

I've deprived my family in order to buy books. No doubt there is a special punishment in hell for such self-indulgence. Perhaps I shall be struck with blindness among the rarest known to men.

For top executives to award themselves these kinds of compensation packages in the midst of this economic crisis isn't just bad taste, it's bad strategy, and I will not tolerate it as president.

At a minimum if we can just have enough distribution of clout in society so it isn't run by a tiny minority, then at the very least it gives us some room to breathe.

Pathetic Earthlings... There's not enough makeup in the universe to cover those hideous, age-ravaged potato sacks that you call faces.

More birds have adapted to a changing world than have failed. Very few have the narrow tolerance of the ivory-billed woodpecker or the Bachman's warbler.

A friendship that like love is warm; A love like friendship, steady.

I hate Keanu Reeves. I think he's a punk.