Above all, translators must be native speakers. It’s not because they speak the language better – I understand that sometimes a foreigner can learn a language better than native speakers. It has more to do with intimate knowledge of the society for which the book is being translated.
Sergei LukyanenkoThat's the way it goes sometimes: in order to help your friends, first you have to help your enemy. Better get used to it.
Sergei LukyanenkoBecause love stands above Darkness and Light.Because love is not sex or a shared faith, or "the joint maintenance of a household and the upbringing of children."Because love is also Power.And Light and Darkness, people and Others, morality and law, the Ten Commandments and the Great Treaty have damn all to do with it.
Sergei LukyanenkoWhy was is that the Light acted through lies, and the Darkness acted though the truth? Why was is that our truth proved powerless, but lies were effective? And why was the Darkness able to manage perfectly well with truth in order to do Evil?
Sergei LukyanenkoIll-considered but well-intentioned actions do more good that actions that are well-considered but cruel.
Sergei LukyanenkoMany years ago someone told me something that I flatly refused to accept. And I still don't accept it now, despite all the times I've seen it proved right. "The common good and the individual good rarely coincide..." Sure, I know, it's true. But some truths are probably worse than lies.
Sergei Lukyanenko