Etgar Keret Quotes

Learn the language that they understand, and when they come upon our doorstep to talk we can talk, and they will get the point. There will be a dialog, there will be some communication, and I am quite certain that then there will be some understanding.

I do not hesitate to read. all good books in translations. What is really best in any book is translatable-any real insight or broad human sentiment.

Translation is an interestingly different way to be involved both with poetry and with the language that I've found myself living in much of the time. I think the two feed each other.

A great age of literature is perhaps always a great age of translations.

Translating one region's works for another region has a beauty with an inborn connect. We might speak different languages but our culture and history is one.

Before I got into politics, I wanted to be a missionary to people in the Middle East. I thought it would be better to speak with them in their own language.

It's like saying French shouldn't be taught because you don't understand it because it's new. Shakespeare is just like learning a new, exciting language.

In the last 1,000 years, the Arabs have translated as many books as Spain translates in just one year.

When I started writing my stories, I thought that not only nobody outside my language, but nobody outside my neighbourhood would get them.

As far as modern writing is concerned, it is rarely rewarding to translate it, although it might be easy. Translation is very much like copying paintings.

Present-day Spain translates as many books into Spanish, annually, as the Arab world has translated into Arabic in the past 1,100 years.

Foreign languages are another favourite topic, and as these men are bilingual they have a fair notion of what it means to speak and think in many different idioms.

I speak English and Spanish. I write in Spanish; my books are published in English.

Honestly, I'm cool with everyone, and people pick up on that. I'd say, 'I'm not gay, but it's all good.' It's kind of like going to Paris when you don't know the language; some Americans get into trouble over there, but I'm just like, 'Sorry, I don't speak French.'

I am the only British writer who writes in Spanish.

One effect that the Nobel Prize seems to have had is that more Arabic literary works have been translated into other languages.

Many young Japanese were hearing for the first time the words of Native people from the West.

Notwithstanding my present incompetency, I am beginning to translate the New Testament, being extremely anxious to get some parts of Scripture, at least, into an intelligible shape, if for no other purpose than to read, as occasion offers, to the Burmans I meet with.

Translation is at best an echo.

The difficulty that many foreign authors face in having their works translated into English has effects far beyond the United States.

I can get along great with the Hispanics. In fact, I sure would like to meet them, even the politicians, maybe in the back room or whatever, have a couple of beers and try to explain. But they need to understand that I enforce the laws. I want to listen to them and hear their problems. I want them to tell me what their problems are.

Even when well translated. can we really understand what other cultures are talking about?

It can have a positive effect on public opinion worldwide if conducted properly. It is a way of conveying the Islamic point of view to Western people

The religious establishment (of Saudi Arabia) makes sure that millions of Islamic books are translated into other languages each year, but very few books are translated into Arabic.

Without knowing the language of a people, we never really know their thoughts, their feelings, and their type of character.