138 Quotes by Lydia Davis

I find teaching - I like it, but I find just walking into the classroom and facing the students very difficult.

I always interrupt work with other work, either in a small way or big way, so that's normal.

All of the little entries in 'The Cows' were written in an irregular way. There might be one or two done one day, and then two weeks might go by or four weeks, and then they were put in an order or sequence.

Collections aren't really planned. I just keep writing short pieces until I have enough for a collection.

I wrote the first draft of 'Madame Bovary' without studying the previous translations, although I gathered them and took the occasional peek.

I first read 'Madame Bovary' in my teens or early twenties.

The existence of another, competing translation is a good thing, in general, and only immediately discouraging to one person - the translator who, after one, two, or three years of more or less careful work, sees another, and perhaps superior, version appear as if overnight.

If a translation doesn't have obvious writing problems, it may seem quite all right at first glance. We readers, after all, quickly adapt to the style of a translator, stop noticing it, and get caught up in the story.

Of course we may have any number of translations of a given text - the more the better, really.