Anything whatsoever may become the subject of a novel, provided only that it happens in this mundane life and not in some fairyland beyond our human … - Arthur Waley

When translating prose dialogue one ought to make the characters say things that people talking English could conceivably say. One ought to hear them talking, just as a novelist hears his characters talk.

Anyone with a good classical education could learn Chinese by himself without difficulty.

Tripitaka stepped lightly ashore. He had discarded his earthly body; he was cleansed from the corruption of the senses, from the fleshly inheritance of those bygone years. His was now the transcendent wisdom that leads to the Further Shore, the mastery that knows no bounds.