I think it's important to be accurate on the level of the word, but it's also important to be accurate at the level of the sentence, at the level of the paragraph. Sometimes you lose sight of that - I remind myself to go back and read.

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

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 don't have a philosophy. If I had a philosophy, it's that I'm kind of literal minded. For example, I would never translate poetry - it's too hard, there are too many levels. Not that prose doesn't have many levels, but it's more grounded.

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.

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