56 Quotes by Deborah Smith

I’m not happy, I’m cheerful. There’s a difference. A happy woman has no cares at all. A cheerful woman has cares but has learned how to deal with them. – Beverly Sills.

I teach Korean translation at the British Centre for Literary Translation summer school, so I see an emerging generation too, who are around my age. I’m hoping to find time to mentor, and to help emerging translators to a first contract through Tilted Axis.

Life doesn’t take itself seriously for long. Joy leaves an imprint even in the hardest sorrow.

All of which suggested literary translation, and Korean seemed a good bet – barely anything available in English, yet it was a modern, developed country, so the work had to be out there, plus the rarity would make it both easier to secure a student grant and more of a niche when it came to work.

Plus, publishing’s inherent conservatism, means that what little did get through was weighted towards the commercial end of the scale, which is not the kind of writing that excites me.

When hope is offered, hope responds.

A kitchen that’s too clean has no soul. No flavor.

There’s never been a war in the history of the world that wasn’t started by the wealthy for the wealthy.

Their mystique comes from the fact that, once upon a time, someone cared enough to hide them.