The Neapolitan novels have a lot of references to things outside, to things of the world, to culture, politics, the city of Naples. People have mentioned that Naples is like a character in the novels.

I think that physical actions are always hard to describe, to translate.

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

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 have very strict rules in my head that seem to me to be the way things should sound.

Trying to take a feeling from one language, and express it in another is naturally that's my goal. You can't possibly achieve that in a perfect way because there's so many things you have to take into consideration. You know, think about every word, every sentence, every paragraph, and do what you can.

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