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Von John E. Woods

„There are many images for what the translator does. The one I finally hit on for myself is that I am essentially a performing artist, in much the same way as the violinist or musical performer takes a musical score – for other people simply black dots on a page – and turns it into something that others can enjoy. I think that we fulfill the same mediating position.“
Harman, Mark: „A Conversation with John E. Woods“. Translation Review, Nr. 44/45, 1994

„The voice that I speak to is the voice speaking back to me from the page and that conversation is my greatest delight. When it comes back to me as the prose that I love, I have had a great conversation for the day.“
Harman, Mark: „A Conversation with John E. Woods“. Translation Review, Nr. 44/45, 1994

„What he called his dehydrated prose is to my mind the apotheosis of German Expressionism. [...] Schmidt is one of the great humorists of 20th-century Germany. [...] It’s an esoteric corner of literature, for Americans at any rate. I have done it simply because it had to be done, partly because Schmidt belongs on the shelf beside Mann and Brecht. Those are the saints, and I put Schmidt right up there with them.“
Woods über seine Übersetzungen von Arno Schmidt in Harman, Mark: „A Conversation with John E. Woods“. Translation Review, Nr. 44/45, 1994

„Any foreign literature is an explosive device for our vast American self-satisfaction. Americans believe that the planet revolves around them. As a German, you know that Americans tend to be self-reliant in all ways. German culture is much more self-reflective than American culture. [...] In Germany, every question is subject to the relativism of thought, and Americans are just not accustomed to that.“
Woods über seine Aussage, deutsche Literatur sei eine Handgranate im amerikanischen Bewusstsein,
in Lubich, Frederick A.: „‚Translating Thomas Mann – and Other Dead White German Males’: An Interview with John E. Woods“. Dimension2 – Contemporary German-Language Literature, Vol. 5, Nr. 3, 1998

„Thomas Mann is one of the great figures of Western literature. As long as people are reading the work of dead white European males, they will be reading the literature of Thomas Mann. I hope my translation will help to create more interest in his work.”
Lubich, Frederick A.: „‚Translating Thomas Mann – and Other Dead White German Males’:
An Interview with John E. Woods“. Dimension2 – Contemporary German-Language Literature, Vol. 5, Nr. 3, 1998


Über John E. Woods

„[Schmidt’s] insistent fragments and sentences compose an enchanting music. And the characters, who spring from darkness like damned sinners in Dante, are so crisply defined they refuse to leave one’s imagination [...]. Schmidt had no audience in English before because everyone except for Mr. Woods knew he could not be translated. But here he is, in English as startling and fresh as in German.“
New York Times

„Woods’ translations are excellent for capturing the imagery [...] Highly recommended.“
The Reader’s Review

„This wonderfully fresh and elegant new version of Mann’s saga by prize-winning translator John E. Woods is the first in nearly 70 years. Woods captures Mann’s humor so well that readers are sure to find themselves laughing aloud, as I did. This new translation is bound to become the definitive English version.“
Harman, Mark: „Buddenbrooks: The Decline of a Family by Thomas Mann“. Translation Review, Bd. 44/45, 1994

„John E. Woods, einer der profiliertesten Übersetzer deutschsprachiger Literatur ins amerikanische Englisch“
Bernhard Fetz (Österreichisches Literaturarchiv Wien)

„Schmidt defies translation. But here John E. Woods captures his very persona – and gleeful eroticism [...]. Let us hope that [...] this new edition of the early works has the success it deserves [...]. Then Arno Schmidt will assume his rightful place in modern literature.“
New York Times Book Review

„Man sieht, wie Woods den Variationsreichtum und die Kompaktheit der Schmidtschen Sprache zu bewahren versteht. Ein zweiter Band mit Funkessays von Arno Schmidt ist schon angekündigt. John E. Woods, wir warten auf sein Erscheinen!“
Martin Lowsky (IRAS/British-American Arno Schmidt Society)

„John E. Woods is revising our impression of Thomas Mann, masterpiece by masterpiece"
The New Yorker