James Salter Quotes

The best translations cannot convey to us the strength and exquisite delicacy of thought in its native garb, and he to whom such books are shut flounders about in outer darkness.

I feel pretty stupid that I don't know any foreign languages. I wish I knew French or Arabic or Chinese.

In a fit at the bookstore one day, I bought all my favourite composers' biographies: Schubert, Massenet, Wolf. I've still not had a chance to read them; it breaks my heart. But when you travel so much, you just can't take that many books with you.

Thousands of Americans are forced to join unions as a condition of employment, with little to no chance of ever having their voices heard.

I don't mind what language an opera is sung in so long as it is a language I don't understand.

For the version of this CD released in Japan, a translation of the English lyrics is included, but there are lots of places where meanings are lost in the process of translation.

I met my wife through playing golf. She is French and couldn't speak English and I couldn't speak French, so there was little chance of us getting involved in any boring conversations - that's why we got married really quickly.

There are more books in the world than hours in which to read them. We are thus deeply influenced by books we haven't read, that we haven't had the time to read.

No one cuts backs like he did. No one knows what a back is anymore.

The unrecorded past is none other than our old friend, the tree in the primeval forest which fell without being heard.

This happens to a lot of kids from different backgrounds - they lose a lot of their parents' and grandparents' teachings, language and culture because they have to deal with another language and culture 24/7. By the time I was 44, I was terrible at Spanish. I was always intimidated whenever I had to speak it.

My language is what I use, and if I lost that, I wouldn't be able to say anything.

An unread author is an author who is a victim of the worst kind of censorship, indifference - a censorship more effective than the Ecclesiastical Index.

There's talent on the streets, kids with ideas who have stories to tell and never get a chance.

Yes, translation is by definition an inadequate substitute for being able to read a masterpiece in the original.

Americans can pretty much sing anything, whereas foreign singers are often limited in style, language, even composer.

What's important to me is offering perspectives into worlds that people don't often get to see. Do you know what I mean? From angles they don't often get to see.

I think archaeologists are stuck, and we are losing our past at a very rapid rate. Tens of thousands of sites will be lost, and we've only unveiled a tiny percent of the past.

It's a pity that if someone who has a really profoundly potent art to share chooses not to or doesn't fit into this very thin slice of what's desirable and marketable, chances are the public will never get a chance to hear what they're doing.

I think when you translate songs, you lose the real essence and the meaning.

Peru is a country where more than half the people would emigrate if given the chance. That's half the population that is willing to abandon everything they know for the uncertainty of a life in a foreign land, in another language.

I think books should have secrets, like people do.

Humor is the first of the gifts to perish in a foreign tongue.

Outside the pale of society, language is just as useless as an eye in darkness

Translation is not original creation - that is what one must remember. In translation, some loss is inevitable.