Lydia Davis's Quotes

I never dream in French, but certain French words seem better or more fun than English words - like 'pois chiches' for chick peas!

I think the close work I do as a translator pays off in my writing - I'm always searching for multiple ways to say things.

I would recommend, definitely, developing a 'day job' that you like - don't expect to make money writing!

My stories are sometimes closer to poems or meditations, but often there is at least a little narrative in them.

I am basically the sort of person who has stage-fright teaching. I kind of creep into a classroom. I'm not an anecdote-teller, either, although I often wish I were.

I do see an interest in writing for Twitter. While publishers still do love the novel and people do still like to sink into one, the very quick form is appealing because of the pace of life.

I don't pare down much. I write the beginning of a story in a notebook and it comes out very close to what it will be in the end. There is not much deliberateness about it.

I started writing the one-sentence stories when I was translating 'Swann's Way.' There were two reasons. I had almost no time to do my own writing, but didn't want to stop. And it was a reaction to Proust's very long sentences.

Often, the idea that there can be a wide range of translations of one text doesn't occur to people - or that a translation could be bad, very bad, and unfaithful to the original.