On her views regarding the translation of works in “AN INTERVIEW WITH MARJANE SATRAPI” in Book Slut (October 2004)
“

The words are not the same and the feeling is not the same. You know, they say in France that translation is like a woman. She is either beautiful or faithful. So it’s better when she’s beautiful because when she’s too faithful it might be very ugly. This is French people. This translation, though, is very well made. This is my American editor, who knows me very well who has made the translation. But in any translation you lose a little bit.

— Marjane Satrapi

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "The words are not the same and the feeling is not the same. You know, they say in France that translation is like a woman. She is either beautiful or faithful. So it’s better when she’s beautiful because when she’s too faithful it might be very ugly. This is French people. This translation, though, is very well made. This is my American editor, who knows me very well who has made the translation. But in any translation you lose a little bit." in the context of "On her views regarding the translation of works in “AN INTERVIEW WITH MARJANE SATRAPI” in Book Slut (October 2004)" to mean that wisdom is timeless.

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Source: Wikiquote: "Marjane Satrapi" (Quotes) The 'What it means' explanation text was generated by Google Gemini Flash (accessed January 18, 2026). https://gemini.google.com/app
Marjane Satrapi

About Marjane Satrapi

Marjane Satrapi (born November 22, 1969) is an Iranian-born French graphic novelist, cartoonist, illustrator, film director and children's book author.