Translating Karl Ove Knausgaard..

I try to make the text flow the best I can, particularly where the sentences are long and involved. I want the feel of English but the intensity of Karl Ove, so I insist on the punctuation of the Norwegian. Too many semicolons and colons—which copy editors would instinctively feel need to be there—interrupt the flow and make the text feel too organized. I don’t like to stray too far from the Norwegian, but I want the English to feel natural, particularly the dialogues. Finding that line is what keeps translators awake at night. I’m not sure anyone can give you instructions about what to do. You develop with experience. According to the book you are translating.

         -- Don Bartlett

2014 Cervantes Prize for Juan Goytisolo

"But the true work of art is not in a hurry: it can slumber for decades, like La Regenta [the 19th-century masterpiece by Leopoldo Alas Clarín] or even forcenturies, like [16th-century novel] La lozana andaluza. The fact that I’m being praised by the literary establishment makes me question myself; being a persona non gratais comforting to me and my work.”

--from Juan Goytisolo's acceptance speech

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Subject matter in Fiction

" I sometimes declare that the subject matter of my writing is what matters to me most. Is it surprising that what matters to me most today is little different from what mattered most fifty years ago? I have no time for those writers of fiction who find their subject matter in the news headlines; who turn the so-called issues of the day into fiction."
--Gerald Murnane

Salman Rushdie on Gunter Grass

"As he delightedly swung and twirled and dipped, I understood that this was who he was: the great dancer of German literature, dancing across history’s horrors toward literature’s beauty, surviving evil because of his personal grace, and his comedian’s sense of the ridiculous as well."

Understanding Novels....

Understanding novels requires wisdom, which it takes decades of living to acquire.