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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.

-Orhan Pamuk

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What Was The Difference

Orhan Pamuk

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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.

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True Literature Is More Than Just A Story Someone Has Told. It Must Provide The Reader With The Essence Of The World On A Moral, Philosophical And Emotional Level.

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Over Time, I Have Come To See The Work Of Literature Less As Narrating The World Than "seeing The World With Words." From The Moment He Begins To Use Words Like Colors In A Painting, A Writer Can Begin To See How Wondrous And Surprising The World Is, And He Breaks The Bones Of Language To Find His Own Voice. For This He Needs Paper, A Pen, And The Optimism Of A Child Looking At The World For The First Time.

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Falling In Love

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.

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Individual Happiness

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I Read A Book One Day And My Whole Life Was Changed.

The First Thing I Learned At School Was That Some People Are Idiots; The Second Thing I Learned Was That Some Are Even Worse.

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.

There Are Two Kind Of Men,' Said Ka, In A Didatic Voice. 'the First Kind Does Not Fall In Love Until He's Seen How The Girls Eats A Sandwich, How She Combs Her Hair, What Sort Of Nonsense She Cares About, Why She's Angry At Her Father, And What Sort Of Stories People Tell About Her. The Second Type Of Man -- And I Am In This Category -- Can Fall In Love With A Woman Only If He Knows Next To Nothing About Her.

Falling In Love

Try To Discover Who I Am From My Choice Of Words And Colors, As Attentive People Like Yourselves Might Examine Footprints To Catch A Thief.

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

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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.

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

My Unhappiness Protects Me From Life.

A Writer In Someone Who Spends Years Patiently Trying To Discover The Second Being Inside Him, And The World That Makes Him Who He Is.

I Don't Want To Be A Tree; I Want To Be Its Meaning.

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

Inspirational Life

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The Beauty And Mystery Of This World Only Emerges Through Affection, Attention, Interest And Compassion . . . Open Your Eyes Wide And Actually See This World By Attending To Its Colors, Details And Irony.

In The Mornings I Used To Say Goodbye To My Wife Like Someone Going To Work. I'd Leave The House, Walk Around A Few Blocks, And Come Back Like A Person Arriving At The Office.

...a Nation Could Change Its Way Of Life, Its History, Its Technology, Its Art, Literature, And Culture, But It Would Never Have A Real Chance To Change Its Gestures.

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.

To Read A Novel Is To Wonder Constantly, Even At Moments When We Lose Ourselves Most Deeply In The Book: How Much Of This Is Fantasy, And How Much Is Real?

I Sometimes Joke That I Am The First Writer Of Historical Fiction Who Can Look Out His Window And Point To The Objects In His Novels. I Have A View Of The Entrance To The Bosporus, The Old City, Hagia Sophia, The Blue Mosque.

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

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

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

My Diary Has Its Own Kind Of Magic. It Gives Me The Feeling Of Having Accomplished Something. On Days When I Don't Have Time For This, I Feel Tortured.

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

Falling In Love

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.

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

What Is The Thing You Want Most From Me? What Can I Do To Make You Love Me?' Be Yourself,' Said Ipek.

Morality Is Probably The Last Thing One Can Learn From Football.

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.

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.

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.

Age Had Not Made Him Less Handsome, As Is So Often The Case; It Had Simply Made Him Less Visible.

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.

And Before Long , The Msuic , The Views Rushing Past The Window , My Fathers Voice And The Narrow Cobblestone Streets All Merged Into One , And It Seemed To Me That While We Would Never Find Answers To These Fundamental Questions , It Was Good For Us To Ask Them Anyway . Pg. 284

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

Ka Found It Very Soothing: For The First Time In Years, He Felt Part Of A Family. In Spite Of The Trials And Responsibilities Of What Was Called 'family', He Saw Now The Joys Of Its Unyielding Togetherness, And Was Sorry Not To Have Known More Of It In His Life.

In Actuality, We Don't Look For Smiles In Pictures Of Bliss, But Rather, For The Happiness In Life Itself. Painters Know This, But This Is Preciously What They Cannot Depict. That's Why They Substitute The Joy Of Seeing For The Joy Of Life.

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.

Dogs Do Speak, But Only To Those Who Know How To Listen.

There's Been Quite A Clear Upswing In Nationalist Sentiments. Everyone Is Talking About It, In Turkey As Well.

Colour Is The Touch Of The Eye, Music To The Deaf, A Word Out Of Darkness.

I Very Much Enjoy Reading Other Writers' Diaries, Mainly Because It Makes Me Ask Myself: Are They Like You? How Do They Think?

It's A Great Relief For Me That No One Will Ask Me Anymore: "orhan, When Will You Get The Nobel Prize?"

Istanbul Is Certainly In The Process Of Transforming Itself Into An Attractive Cultural, Tourist And Financial Center. But There Are Also Millions Of Sad Stories In This Giant Sea Of Immigration, Poverty, Misery And Contradictions. So Much Anger, Frustration And Fury.

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

Great Changes In The Direction Of Peace Have Often Come From People Who Were No Great Advocates Of Peace To Begin With.

She Looked Out The Window; In Her Eyes Was The Light That You See Only In Children Arriving At A New Place, Or In Young People Still Open To New Influences, Still Curious About The World Because They Have Not Yet Been Scarred By Life.

We Fall In Love More Deeply When Were Unhappy.

Falling In Love

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.

Many Great Authors Of The 19th Century Wrote Under Conditions Of Strict Censorship. The Great Thing About The Art Of Writing A Novel, Is That You Can Write About Anything. All You Have To Say Is That It's Fiction.

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.

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.

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

The Challenge Is To Lend Conviction Even To The Voices Which Advocate Views I Find Personally Abhorrent, Whether They Are Political Islamists Or Officers Justifying A Coup.

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.

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.

Censorship Should Never Be Allowed. One Should Be Able To Say Anything. But I Refuse To Let Politics Be Foisted On Me.

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

The Secularists In Turkey Haven't Underestimated Religion, They Just Made The Mistake Of Believing They Could Control It With The Power Of The Army Alone.

More Than Anything I Am A Novelist. But For Me, An Author's Job Is Not Only To Create Linguistically Accomplished Works. As An Author I Also Want To Stimulate Discussion.

Before My Birth There Was Infinite Time, And After My Death, Inexhaustible Time. I Never Thought Of It Before: I'd Been Living Luminously Between Two Eternities Of Darkness.

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

In Poetically Well Built Museums, Formed From The Heart's Compulsions, We Are Consoled Not By Finding In Them Old Objects That We Love, But By Losing All Sense Of Time.

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.

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

Being Different

For The Traveler We See Leaning On His Neighbor Is An Honest And Well-meaning Man And Full Of Melancholy, Like Those Chekhov Characters So Laden With Virtues That They Never Know Success In Life.

When Two People Love Each Other As We Do, No One Can Come Between Them, No One," I Said, Amazed At The Words I Was Uttering Without Preparation. "lovers Like Us, Because They Know That Nothing Can Destroy Their Love, Even On The Worst Days, Even When They Are Heedlessly Hurting Each Other In The Cruelest , Most Deceitful Ways, Still Carry In Their Hearts A Consolation That Never Abandons Them." (p.191)

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.

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.

I Have Hired A Bodyguard, On The Recommendation Of My Friends And The Government. It's Outrageous, Having To Live Like This.

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I Believe Strongly In An Author's Moral Responsibility. But His First Obligation Is To Write Good Books.

...the Endless Repetition Of An Ordinary Miracle.

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Olive Schreiner

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