A Quote by Amos Oz

I know that a translation of a work of literature is like playing a violin concerto on the piano. You can do this. You can do this very successfully on one strict condition: never try to force the piano to produce the sounds of the violin. This will be grotesque.

Amos Oz

Quote Topics

Concerto Condition Force Grotesque Know Like Literature Never Piano Playing Produce Sounds Strict Successfully Translation Try Very Violin Will Work

Quote Author

Amos Oz
Israeli - Novelist
Born: May 4, 1939

Of course my books are translated into many languages. I have here, in my home, translations on my shelf of my books into forty-five different languages. Almost none of them I can read. I can read only the English editions. But, I know that a translation of a work of literature is like playing a violin concerto on the piano. You can do this. You can do this very successfully on one strict condition: never try to force the piano to produce the sounds of the violin. This will be grotesque. So, different musical instruments provide for different music.

Amos Oz

My mother played the piano and my father the violin, I can remember my dad teaching me how to waltz; I had my feet on his, my mother playing the piano, and my husband will tell you the lessons weren't very successful.

Quentin Bryce

Of course, the recorder will never have the repertoire of the piano or the violin.

Michala Petri

My mother playing the violin and my father and grandfather playing the piano, classical stuff.

Pete Seeger

I grew up playing piano and violin, and then basketball took over.

Liz Cambage

I was up playing violin at seven and translating that information to play guitar, piano at eight.

Ronnie Milsap

I'm incredibly competitive in all sports in a way that is so mystifying to my wife because she grew up playing the violin and piano. I've always been like that.

Geoff Dyer

I first started playing the violin at 6. And then at 7, it was piano. So from then it was just classical music like every day.

Henry Lau

I realised, however, that you can't sing when you're playing the violin - or at least I can't - and as that aspect of performing is important to me I shifted to the piano.

Freya Ridings

We developed our own type of Igudesman and Joo electric violin, let's say, and funny enough, the shape of it was developed by the head technician of Steinway. It's actually an electric violin, which is made from the stick that holds up the piano lid.

Aleksey Igudesman

My mother adores singing and plays piano. My uncle was a phenomenal pianist. My brother John is a double bassist. I used to play the piano, badly, and cello. My brother Peter played violin.

Fiona Shaw

Ability to think, like the violin or piano, requires daily practice

Charlie Chaplin

I was playing violin for a long time, about 6 years. It takes a while. You need very patient people in your house when you have a violin.

Kevin Eubanks

A computer is like a violin. You can imagine a novice trying ?rst a phonograph and then a violin. The latter, he says, sounds terrible. That is the argument we have heard from our humanists and most of our computer scientists. Computer programs are good, they say, for particular purposes, but they aren’t ?exible. Neither is a violin, or a typewriter, until you learn how to use it.

Marvin Minsky

Well, since I'm six years old, I've been playing the violin, the piano, I've been singing. It's always been a dream of mine, but I really never had the courage to actually go and do it professionally.