Maryjo

“Translation means doing violence upon the original, means warping and distorting it for foreign, unintended eyes. So then where does that leave us? How can we conclude, except by acknowledging that an act of translation is then necessarily always an act of betrayal?”
― R.F. Kuang, Babel

“At that moment the power of reading made itself clear and real to me. If I could see the words, then no one could control them or what I got from them. They couldn’t even know if I was merely seeing them or reading them, sounding them out or comprehending them. It was a completely private affair and completely free and, therefore, completely subversive.”
― Percival Everett, James

“But never forget the audacity of what you are attempting. Never forget that you are defying a curse laid by God.”
― R.F. Kuang, Babel

“I had never read a novel, though I understood the concept of fiction. It wasn't so unlike religion, or history, for that matter.”
― Percival Everett, James