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

I always hesitate to say that something is lifelike.

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.

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.

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.

Bound, elbow to elbow, darkness and night entered the dwelling.

Go write win!

I am so grateful for the many times God has shown me the mercy of not giving me what I want.

Training is everything. The peach was once a bitter almond cauliflower is nothing but cabbage with a college education.

I think within a year or so, perhaps, if 9/11 had not happened, in Afghanistan would have been a very broad-based general uprising against the Taliban.

Since 1937, about half the forests in the world have been cut down to make paper. If hemp had not been outlawed, most would still be standing, oxygenating the planet.

But I would never insult the people that love this music and I would never insult the blessing of music in my life and I would never insult myself by playing uninspired music.

I have the infinite galaxy from '2001 as my screensaver - so if I space out while I'm writing and it goes to screensaver, I can just stare off into the stars.

Amazing, Yetta thought. Back home I couldn't have chosen my own husband. And here I'm thinking about choosing presidents, governors, mayors, laws.

We should not be confident in our ability to keep a super-intelligent genie locked up in its bottle forever.