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I Identify With My Culture, But I Am Happy To Be Living On A Tolerant, Intellectual Island Where I Can Deal With Dostoyevsky And Sartre, Both Great Influences For Me.

-Orhan Pamuk

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I Identify With My

Orhan Pamuk

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I Identify With My Culture, But I Am Happy To Be Living On A Tolerant, Intellectual Island Where I Can Deal With Dostoyevsky And Sartre, Both Great Influences For Me.

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In Europe The Rich Are Refined Enough To Act As If They're Not Wealthy. That Is How Civilized People Behave. If You Ask Me, Being Cultured And Civilized Is Not About Everyone Being Free And Equal; It's About Everyone Being Refined Enough To Act As If They Were. Then No One Has To Feel Guilty.

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Falling In Love

I Was At The End Of My Tether When My First Book Was Published. For Eight Years I Didn't Make A Penny, I Worked So Hard, Didn't Drink, Didn't Enjoy Life.

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It Is Not My Intention To Explain Turkey, Its Culture And Its Problems. My Literature Has A Universal Concern: I Want To Bring People And Their Emotions Closer To My Readers, Not Explain Turkish Politics.

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Books, Which We Mistake For Consolation, Only Add Depth To Our Sorrow.

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Turkish Football Serves The Cause Of Nationalism, But Not Of The Nation.

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When Another Writer In Another House Is Not Free, No Writer Is Free.

Freedom Of Speech

When Something Explosive Is Kept Hidden Away, A Tension Builds Within That Must Ultimately Be Released.

I Believe That It Isn't Victories But Defeats That Promote Nationalism.

I Realized That The Longing For Art, Like The Longing For Love, Is A Malady That Blinds Us, And Makes Us Forget The Things We Already Know, Obscuring Reality.

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Whatever Anybody Says, The Most Important Thing In Life Is To Be Happy.

Inspirational Life

It's Such A Shame That We Know So Little About Our Own Country, That We Can't Find It In Our Hearts To Love Our Own Kind. Instead We Admire Those Who Show Our Country Disrespect And Betray Its People.

I Do Not Believe In A Personal Connection To God; That's Where It Gets Transcendental.

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I Am Proud To Be A Turk, And To Write In Turkish About Turkey - And To Have Been Translated Into About 40 Languages. But I Don't Want To Politicize Things By Dramatizing Them.

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Turkey, With Its Political Intolerance, As I Have Described It, Is Prepared To March Forward, To Break With Its Taboo About The Armenians, And Is Making Great Strides With Respect To Human Rights And Freedom Of Speech So That It Can Join The European Union. This Alone Shows How Powerful The European Idea Is.

I Work Seven Days A Week, From 9 In The Morning Till 8 At Night. I Have The Titles Of The Next Eight Novels I Want To Write. I Feel Myself Pitiable, Degraded On A Day That I Don't Write.

I Want To Describe The Psychological State Of The People In A Certain City.

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Actually, It's The Other Way Round. In A Poor Country, The Only Consolation People Can Have Is The One That Comes From Their Beliefs.

For If A Lover's Face Survives Emblazoned On Your Heart, The World Is Still Your Home.

Ka Knew Very Well That Life Was A Meaningless String Of Random Incidents

When You Love A City And Have Explored It Frequently On Foot, Your Body, Not To Mention Your Soul, Gets To Know The Streets So Well After A Number Of Years That In A Fit Of Melancholy, Perhaps Stirred By A Light Snow Falling Ever So Sorrowfully, You'll Discover Your Legs Carrying You Of Their Own Accord Toward One Of Your Favourite Promontories

Are You An Angel That Approaching You Should Be So Terrifying?

The Writers Secret Is Not Inspiration - For It Is Never Clear Where It Comes From - It Is His Stubbornness, His Patience.

As Much As I Live I Shall Not Imitate Them Or Hate Myself For Being Different To Them

Being Different

Snow Reminds Ka Of God! But I’m Not Sure It Would Be Accurate. What Brings Me Close To God Is The Silence Of Snow.

A Letter Doesn't Communicate By Words Alone. A Letter, Just Like A Book, Can Be Read By Smelling It, Touching It And Fondling It. Thereby, Intelligent Folk Will Say, 'go On Then, Read What The Letter Tells You!' Whereas The Dull-witted Will Say, 'go On Then, Read What He's Written!

When You Look Into The Faces Of These Quiet Creatures Who Don't Know How To Tell Stories--who Are Mute, Who Can't Make Themselves Heard, Who Fade Into The Woodwork, Who Only Think Of The Perfect Answer After The Fact, After They're Back At Home, Who Can Never Think Of A Story That Anyone Else Will Find Interesting--is There Not More Depth And More Meaning In Them? You Can See Every Letter Of Every Untold Story Swimming On Their Faces, And All The Signs Of Silence, Dejection, And Even Defeat. You Can Even Imagine Your Own Face In Those Faces, Can't You?

Listen To Me: Life Is Not About Principles; It`s About Happiness.` `but If You Don`t Have Any Principles, And If You Don`t Have Faith, You Can`t Be Happy At All,` Said Kadife. `that`s True. But In A Brutal Country Like Ours, Where Human Life Is Cheap, It`s Stupid To Destroy Yourself For The Sake Of Your Beliefs. Beliefs? High Ideas? Only People In Rich Countries Can Enjoy Such Luxuries.` `actually, It`s The Other Way Round. In A Poor Country, People`s Sole Consolation Comes From Their Beliefs.

With The Death Of My Father, It Wasn't Just The Objects Of Everyday Life That Had Changed; Even The Most Ordinary Street Scenes Had Become Irreplaceable Mementos Of A Lost World Whose Every Detail Figured In The Meaning Of The Whole.

The Sight Of Snow Made Her Think How Beautiful And Short Life Is And How, In Spite Of All Their Enmities, People Have So Very Much In Common; Measured Against Eternity And The Greatness Of Creation, The World In Which They Lived Was Narrow. That's Why Snow Drew People Together. It Was As If Snow Cast A Veil Over Hatreds, Greed, And Wrath And Made Everyone Feel Close To One Another. -- Snow Pg 119

My Religion Is Complicated. Literature Is My True Religion. After All, I Come From A Completely Non-religious Family.

I Don't Read Newspapers In The Morning. I Take A Look At The Dailies In The Afternoon, But Only When I've Finished My Work For The Day. Reading About What Is Happening In Turkey Once Again Would Only Be Demoralizing For Me.

The Entire World Was Like A Palace With Countless Rooms Whose Doors Opened Into One Another. We Were Able To Pass From One Room To The Next Only By Exercising Our Memories And Imaginations, But Most Of Us, In Our Laziness, Rarely Exercised These Capacities, And Forever Remained In The Same Room.

When We Lose People We Love, We Should Never Disturb Their Souls, Whether Living Or Dead. Instead. We Should Find Consolation In An Object That Reminds You Of Them, Something...i Don't Know...even An Earring

National Consciousness Is Truly A Miraculous Thing. When I Am Not In Turkey I Feel Even More Turkish Than In Istanbul. But When I'm Home My European Side Becomes More Apparent.

Life Can't Be All That Bad,' I'd Think From Time To Time. 'whatever Happens, I Can Always Take A Long Walk Along The Bosphorus.

Ka Thought It Strangely Depressing That The Suicide Girls Had Had To Struggle To Find A Private Moment To Kill Themselves. Even After Swallowing Their Pills, Even As They Lay Quietly Dying, They’d Had To Share Their Rooms With Others.

It May Not Happen In The First Instant, But Within Ten Minutes Of Meeting A Man, A Woman Has A Clear Idea Of Who He Is, Or At Least Who He Might Be For Her, And Her Heart Of Hearts Has Already Told Her Whether Or Not She's Going To Fall In Love With Him.

Falling In Love

Life Is Short, And We Should Respect Every Moment Of It.

I Need A Moment Of Time For Myself Every Day, Like A Child Playing With His Things. When I Travel, I Routinely Find A Quiet Place, Open My Diary And Write Something In It.

‎the Past Is Always An Invented Land.

What Was Venerated As Style Was Nothing More Than An Imperfection Or Flaw That Revealed The Guilty Hand.

Well, On The One Hand The Turks Have The Legitimate Need To Defend Their National Dignity - And This Includes Being Recognized As A Part Of The West And Europe.

Clocks And Calendars Do Not Exist To Remind Us Of The Time We've Forgotten But To Regulate Our Relations With Others And Indeed All Of Society, And This Is How We Use Them.

I Think A Lot About The Poems I Wasn't Able To Write...i Masturbrated...solitude Is Essentially A Matter Of Pride; You Bury Yourself In Your Own Scent. The Issue Is The Same For All Real Poets. If You've Been Happy For Too Long, You Become Banal. By The Same Token, If You've Been Unhappy For A Long Time, You Lose Your Poetic Power...happiness And Poverty Can Only Coexist For The Briefest Time. Afterword Either Happiness Coarsens The Poet Or The Poem Is So True It Destroys His Happiness.

Tell Me Then, Does Love Make One A Fool Or Do Only Fools Fall In Love?

Falling In Love

Yet Does Illustrating In A New Way Signify A New Way Of Seeing?

Nationalism Stems From Catastrophes, Whether They Are Caused By Earthquakes Or Lost Wars.

Painting Taught Literature To Describe.

The Knowledge That She Could Learn To Love A Man Had Always Meant More To Her Than Loving Him Effortlessly, More Even Than Falling In Love, And That Was Why She Now Felt That She Was On The Threshold Of A New Life, A Happiness Bound To Endure For A Very Long Time.

Falling In Love

I See Turkey's Future As Being In Europe, As One Of Many Prosperous, Tolerant, Democratic Countries.

Real Museums Are Places Where Time Is Transformed Into Space.

How Much Can We Ever Know About The Love And Pain In Another Heart? How Much Can We Hope To Understand Those Who Have Suffered Deeper Anguish, Greater Deprivation, And More Crushing Disappointments Than We Ourselves Have Known?

Sometimes I Would See Them Not As Mementos Of The Blissful Hours But As The Tangible Precious Debris Of The Storm Raging In My Soul.

Time Had Not Faded My Memories (as I Had Prayed To God It Might), Nor Had It Healed My Wounds As It Is Said Always To Do. I Began Each Day With The Hope That The Next Day Would Be Better, My Recollections A Little Less Pointed, But I Would Awake To The Same Pain, As If A Black Lamp Were Burning Eternally Inside Me, Radiating Darkness.

The Snow Reminded Me Of The Beauty And Mystery Of Creation, Of The Essential Joy That Is Life.

My Hero Wants To Belong Too, But He Doesn't Want To Give Up All The Things He Came To Value In The West.

The Real Choice We Have To Make Is Between Peace And Nationalism.

Heroic Dreams Are The Consolation Of The Unhappy. After All, When People Like Us Say We're Being Heroic, It Usually Means We're About To Kill Each Other--or Kill Ourselves.

Suddenly Ka Realized He Was In Love With İpek. And Realizing That This Love Would Determine The Rest Of His Life, He Was Filled With Dread.

The Silence Of Snow, Thought The Man Sitting Just Behind The Bus Driver.

I Really Don't Want To Portray The Islamists As Simply Evil, The Way It's Often Done In The West.

A Writer Is Someone Who Spends Years Patiently Trying To Discover The Second Being Inside Him, And The World That Makes Him Who He Is: When I Speak Of Writing, What Comes First To My Mind Is Not A Novel, A Poem, Or Literary Tradition, It Is A Person Who Shuts Himself Up In A Room, Sits Down At A Table, And Alone, Turns Inward; Amid Its Shadows, He Builds A New World With Words.

...every Person Has A Star, Every Star Has A Friend, And For Every Person Carrying A Star There Is Someone Else Who Reflects It, And Everyone Carries This Reflection Like A Secret Confidante In The Heart.

No One Drives Me Into Exile, Not Even The Nationalists.

People Only Tell Lies When There Is Something They Are Terribly Frightened Of Losing.

I Consider Myself A Person Who Comes From A Muslim Culture. In Any Case, I Would Not Say That I'm An Atheist. So I'm A Muslim Who Associates Historical And Cultural Identification With This Religion.

Happiness Is Holding Someone In Your Arms And Knowing You Hold The Whole World.

We're Not Stupid! We're Just Poor! And We Have A Right To Insist On This Distinction

In His Brilliant New Book Pankaj Mishra Reverses The Long Gaze Of The West Upon The East, Showing Modern History As It Has Been Felt By The Majority Of The World's Population From Turkey To China. These Are The Amazing Stories Of The Grandfathers Of Today's Angry Asians. Excellent!

How Different From The Cosy World Of Rüya's Detective Novels, Where Authors Never Vexed A Hero With More Signs Than He Needed.

After All, A Woman Who Doesn't Love Cats Is Never Going To Be Make A Man Happy.

What Was The Difference Between Love And The Agony Of Waiting? Like Love, The Agony Of Waiting Began In The Muscles And Somewhere Around The Upper Belly But Soon Spread Out To The Chest, The Thighs, And The Forehead, To Invade The Entire Body With Numbing Force.

Heaven Was The Place Where You Kept Alive The Dreams Of Your Memories.

[n]othing Is As Surprising As Life. Except For Writing. Except For Writing. Yes, Of Course, Except For Writing, The Only Consolation.

There's A Lot Of Pride Involved In My Refusal To Believe In God.

The Bloody Years Of War And All The Atrocities In European History Have Taught The Europeans That Secular Politics Free Of Religious Hatred Is Mainly A Question Of Peace. This Concept Is Not Anchored In The Same Way In The Consciousness Of Turks, Which Has To Do With The Fact That The Secular Was Forced Upon Us By The Army.

Nothing Changed In My Life Since I Work All The Time," Pamuk Said Then. "i've Spent 30 Years Writing Fiction. For The First 10 Years I Worried About Money And No One Asked Me How Much Money I Made. The Second Decade I Spent Money And No One Was Asking Me About That. And I've Spent The Last 10 Years With Everyone Expecting To Hear How I Spend The Money, Which I Will Not Do.

I Identify With My Culture, But I Am Happy To Be Living On A Tolerant, Intellectual Island Where I Can Deal With Dostoyevsky And Sartre, Both Great Influences For Me.

What Is Love?” “i Don’t Know.” “love Is The Name Given To The Bond Kemal Feels With Füsun Whenever They Travel Along Highways Or Sidewalks; Visit Houses, Gardens, Or Rooms; Or Whenever He Watches Her Sitting In Tea Gardens And Restaurants, And At Dinner Tables.” “hmmm … That’s A Lovely Answer,~ But Isn’t Love What You Feel When You Can’t See Me?” “under Those Circumstances, It Becomes A Terrible Obsession, An Illness.

As Always After Drinking Too Much, I Felt Like My Own Ghost Trying To Take It's First Solo Walk Outside The Body.

The Urbanized Life Has Lead To The Destruction Of The Legends.

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Kristen Johnston

Elizabeth Gaskell

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