Orhan Pamuk Quotes

East and West are coming together. Whether in peace or anarchy - they are coming together. There needn't be a clash between East and West, between Islam and Europe.

I see Turkey's future as being in Europe, as one of many prosperous, tolerant, democratic countries.

Istanbul is a vast place. There are very conservative neighbourhoods, there are places that are upper class, Westernised, consuming Western culture.

After all, isn't the purpose of the novel, or of a museum, for that matter, to relate our memories with such sincerity as to transform individual happiness into a happiness all can share?

As much as I live I shall not imitate them or hate myself for being different to them

I believe that it isn't victories but defeats that promote nationalism.

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.

My hero wants to belong too, but he doesn't want to give up all the things he came to value in the west.

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.

Where there is true art and genuine virtuosity the artist can paint an incomparable masterpiece without leaving even a trace of his identity.

The real question is how much suffering we've caused our womenfolk by turning headscarves into symbols - and using women as pawns in a political game.

Happiness is laughing together.

The urbanized life has lead to the destruction of the legends.

It's very gratifying to me to see my works bringing people closer to my country.

Colour is the touch of the eye, Music to the deaf, A word out of darkness.

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 always after drinking too much, I felt like my own ghost trying to take it's first solo walk outside the body.

I believe strongly in an author's moral responsibility. But his first obligation is to write good books.

The thing that binds us together is that we have both lowered our expectations of life

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.

We're not stupid! We're just poor! And we have a right to insist on this distinction

Let me first state forthright that contrary to what we've often read in books and heard from preachers, when you are a woman, you don't feel like the Devil.

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?

Yet does illustrating in a new way signify a new way of seeing?

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.

Life is short, and we should respect every moment of it.

Are you an angel that approaching you should be so terrifying?

Ka knew very well that life was a meaningless string of random incidents

We fall in love more deeply when were unhappy.

All great masters, in their work, seek that profound void within color and outside time.

The writers secret is not inspiration - for it is never clear where it comes from - it is his stubbornness, his patience.

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.

What is the thing you want most from me? What can I do to make you love me?' Be yourself,' said Ipek.

Let everyone know, I lived a very happy life.

Painting taught literature to describe.

I certainly see myself more as a craftsman than as an artist.

Writing my own diary is the best form of remembrance, but only for my own use. I need these notes; it's like an impulse.

It's a great relief for me that no one will ask me anymore: "Orhan, when will you get the Nobel Prize?"

The snow reminded me of the beauty and mystery of creation, of the essential joy that is life.

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.

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.

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.

Now everyone is prouder and poorer

Turkish football serves the cause of nationalism, but not of the nation.

No one drives me into exile, not even the nationalists.

[N]othing is as surprising as life. Except for writing. Except for writing. Yes, of course, except for writing, the only consolation.

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.

I am nothing but a corpse now, a body at the bottom of a well.

Great changes in the direction of peace have often come from people who were no great advocates of peace to begin with.

When something explosive is kept hidden away, a tension builds within that must ultimately be released.