122 Quotes & Sayings By Orhan Pamuk

In fact no one recognizes the happiest moment of their lives as they are living it. It may well be that, in a moment of joy, one might sincerely believe that they are living that golden instant "now, " even having lived such a moment before, but whatever they say, in one part of their hearts they still believe in the certainty of a happier moment to come. Because how could anyone, and particularly anyone who is still young, carry on with the belief that everything could only get worse: If a person is happy enough to think he has reached the happiest moment of his life, he will be hopeful enough to believe his future will be just as beautiful, more so. Orhan Pamuk

Any intelligent person knows that life is a beautiful thing and that the purpose of life is to be happy, " said my father as he watched the three beauties. "But it seems only idiots are ever happy. How can we explain this? Orhan Pamuk

วัà¸â„¢à¸«à¸â„¢à¸¶à¹ˆà¸‡à¹ƒà¸â„¢à¸¤à¸”ูหà¸â„¢à¸²à¸§ สมัยที่คุณเป็à¸â„¢à¸â„¢à¸±à¸à¹€à¸£à¸µà¸¢à¸â„¢à¸¡à¸±à¸˜à¸¢à¸¡ หิมะกำลังตก คุณกำลังครุ่à¸â„¢à¸„ิดอะไรบางอย่างจà¸â„¢à¸¥à¸·à¸¡à¸ªà¸´à¹ˆà¸‡à¸­à¸·à¹ˆà¸â„¢ คุณไดà¹â€°à¸¢à¸´à¸â„¢à¹€à¸ªà¸µà¸¢à¸‡à¸žà¸£à¸°à¹€à¸ˆà¹â€°à¸²à¹ƒà¸â„¢à¸•à¸±à¸§à¸„ุณ และคุณก็พยายามจะลืมพระองค์ใหà¹â€°à¹„ดà¹â€° คุณเห็à¸â„¢à¸§à¹ˆà¸²à¹â€šà¸¥à¸à¸â„¢à¸µà¹â€°à¹€à¸›à¹‡à¸â„¢à¸«à¸â„¢à¸¶à¹ˆà¸‡à¹€à¸”ียว แต่คุณคิดว่าถà¹â€°à¸²à¸ªà¸²à¸¡à¸²à¸£à¸–หลับตาลงไม่มองภาพà¸â„¢à¸µà¹â€° คุณจะเศรà¹â€°à¸²à¸«à¸¡à¸­à¸‡à¹„ดà¹â€°à¸¡à¸²à¸à¸à¸§à¹ˆà¸²à¹à¸¥à¸°à¸¡à¸µà¸ªà¸•à¸´à¸›à¸±à¸à¸à¸²à¸¥à¹â€°à¸³à¹€à¸¥à¸´à¸¨à¸à¸§à¹ˆà¸²à¸”à¹â€°à¸§à¸¢ à¸â€¹à¸¶à¹ˆà¸‡à¸„ุณก็คิดถูกแลà¹â€°à¸§ มีแต่คà¸â„¢à¸—ี่à¸â€°à¸¥à¸²à¸”มากๆ หม่à¸â„¢à¸«à¸¡à¸­à¸‡à¸¡à¸²à¸à¹† เท่าà¸â„¢à¸±à¹â€°à¸â„¢à¸—ี่จะเà¸â€šà¸µà¸¢à¸â„¢à¸šà¸—กวีไดà¹â€°à¸”ี ดังà¸â„¢à¸±à¹â€°à¸â„¢à¸„ุณจึงยืดอกอย่างหาญกลà¹â€°à¸²à¹à¸¥à¸°à¹à¸šà¸à¸£à¸±à¸šà¸„วามเจ็บปวดà¸â€šà¸­à¸‡à¸à¸²à¸£à¹„รà¹â€°à¸¨à¸£à¸±à¸—ธา เพียงเพื่อจะไดà¹â€°à¹€à¸â€šà¸µà¸¢à¸â„¢à¸šà¸—กวีดีๆ แต่หารูà¹â€°à¹„ม่ว่าเมื่อคุณสูญเสียเสียงà¸â€šà¹â€°à¸²à¸‡à¹ƒà¸â„¢à¸—ี่ว่าà¸â„¢à¸±à¹â€°à¸â„¢à¹„ป สุดทà¹â€°à¸²à¸¢à¸„ุณจะลงเอยอย่างà¹â€šà¸”ดเดี่ยวใà¸â„¢à¸ˆà¸±à¸à¸£à¸§à¸²à¸¥à¸­à¸±à¸â„¢à¸§à¹ˆà¸²à¸‡à¹€à¸›à¸¥à¹ˆà¸² . Orhan Pamuk

ต่อใหà¹â€°à¸„ุณเà¸Åื่อใà¸â„¢à¸žà¸£à¸°à¹€à¸ˆà¹â€°à¸²à¸ˆà¸£à¸´à¸‡ มัà¸â„¢à¸ˆà¸°à¹„ปไดà¹â€°à¹€à¸£à¸·à¹ˆà¸­à¸‡à¹„ดà¹â€°à¸£à¸²à¸§à¸­à¸°à¹„รถà¹â€°à¸²à¸„ุณเà¸Åื่ออยู่คà¸â„¢à¹€à¸”ียว คุณจะตà¹â€°à¸­à¸‡à¹€à¸Åื่อใà¸â„¢à¸žà¸£à¸°à¹€à¸ˆà¹â€°à¸²à¹à¸šà¸šà¹€à¸”ียวกับที่คà¸â„¢à¸¢à¸²à¸à¸ˆà¸â„¢à¹€à¸Åื่อ คุณตà¹â€°à¸­à¸‡à¸à¸¥à¸²à¸¢à¹€à¸›à¹‡à¸â„¢à¸«à¸â„¢à¸¶à¹ˆà¸‡à¹ƒà¸â„¢à¸„à¸â„¢à¸žà¸§à¸à¸â„¢à¸±à¹â€°à¸â„¢à¸”à¹â€°à¸§à¸¢ คุณจะตà¹â€°à¸­à¸‡à¸à¸´à¸â„¢à¸ªà¸´à¹ˆà¸‡à¸—ี่พวกà¸â„¢à¸±à¹â€°à¸â„¢à¸à¸´à¸â„¢ ใà¸Åà¹â€°à¸Åีวิตแบบที่พวกà¸â„¢à¸±à¹â€°à¸â„¢à¹€à¸›à¹‡à¸â„¢ หัวเราะเรื่องตลกที่พวกà¸â„¢à¸±à¹â€°à¸â„¢à¸«à¸±à¸§à¹€à¸£à¸²à¸°à¸à¸±à¸â„¢ แลà¹â€°à¸§à¸à¹‡à¹â€šà¸à¸£à¸˜à¸—ุกครัà¹â€°à¸‡à¸—ี่พวกà¸â„¢à¸±à¹â€°à¸â„¢à¹â€šà¸à¸£à¸˜ คุณถึงจะเà¸Åื่อใà¸â„¢à¸žà¸£à¸°à¹€à¸ˆà¹â€°à¸²à¸â€šà¸­à¸‡à¸žà¸§à¸à¸â„¢à¸±à¹â€°à¸â„¢à¹„ดà¹â€° ถà¹â€°à¸²à¸„ุณกลับตาลปัตรใà¸Åà¹â€°à¸Åีวิตที่ต่างออกไป ก็จะเป็à¸â„¢à¹„ปไม่ไดà¹â€°à¸—ี่คุณจะไปà¸â„¢à¸±à¸šà¸–ือพระเจà¹â€°à¸²à¸­à¸‡à¸„์เดียวกัà¸â„¢à¸à¸±à¸šà¸žà¸§à¸à¸â„¢à¸±à¹â€°à¸â„¢ . Orhan Pamuk

à¸â„¢à¸²à¸¢à¹„ม่ไวà¹â€°à¹ƒà¸ˆà¸„à¸â„¢à¸—ี่ไม่à¸Åอบยุ่งเกี่ยวกับใคร มีแà¸â„¢à¸§à¸„ิดแบบตะวัà¸â„¢à¸•à¸ à¸â€šà¸“ะเดียวกัà¸â„¢à¸à¹‡à¸¡à¸µà¸„วามเà¸Åื่อใà¸â„¢à¸žà¸£à¸°à¹€à¸ˆà¹â€°à¸²à¹ƒà¸â„¢à¹à¸šà¸šà¸â€šà¸­à¸‡à¸•à¸±à¸§à¹€à¸­à¸‡à¸­à¸¢à¸¹à¹ˆà¹€à¸‡à¸µà¸¢à¸šà¹† ตามลำพัง à¸â„¢à¸²à¸¢à¸¡à¸­à¸‡à¸§à¹ˆà¸²à¸„à¸â„¢à¸—ี่ไม่เà¸Åื่อใà¸â„¢à¸žà¸£à¸°à¹€à¸ˆà¹â€°à¸²à¹à¸•à¹ˆà¸¢à¸±à¸‡à¹€à¸â€šà¹â€°à¸²à¸£à¹ˆà¸§à¸¡à¸à¸±à¸šà¸Åุมà¸Åà¸â„¢ ยังà¸â„¢à¹ˆà¸²à¹€à¸Åื่อถือไดà¹â€°à¸¡à¸²à¸à¸à¸§à¹ˆà¸²à¸„à¸â„¢à¸ªà¸±à¸â„¢à¹â€šà¸”ษที่เà¸Åื่อใà¸â„¢à¸žà¸£à¸°à¹€à¸ˆà¹â€°à¸²à¹€à¸ªà¸µà¸¢à¸­à¸µà¸ สำหรับà¸â„¢à¸²à¸¢à¹à¸¥à¹â€°à¸§ คà¸â„¢à¸ªà¸±à¸â„¢à¹â€šà¸”ษà¸â„¢à¹ˆà¸²à¸ªà¸¡à¹€à¸žà¸Åเวทà¸â„¢à¸²à¹à¸¥à¸°à¸šà¸²à¸›à¸¢à¸´à¹ˆà¸‡à¸§à¹ˆà¸²à¸„à¸â„¢à¸—ี่ไม่เà¸Åื่อใà¸â„¢à¸žà¸£à¸°à¹€à¸ˆà¹â€°à¸² . Orhan Pamuk

ผมเคยเปิดสาราà¸â„¢à¸¸à¸à¸£à¸¡à¸”ูแลà¹â€°à¸§ คำว่า atheist มาจากคำภาษากรีกว่า athos แต่คำà¸â„¢à¸µà¹â€° ไม่ไดà¹â€°à¸«à¸¡à¸²à¸¢à¸–ึงคà¸â„¢à¸—ี่ไม่เà¸Åื่อใà¸â„¢à¸žà¸£à¸°à¹€à¸ˆà¹â€°à¸² มัà¸â„¢à¸«à¸¡à¸²à¸¢à¸–ึงคà¸â„¢à¹â€šà¸”ดเดี่ยว คà¸â„¢à¸—ี่พระเจà¹â€°à¸²à¸¥à¸°à¸—ิà¹â€°à¸‡à¸•à¹ˆà¸²à¸‡à¸«à¸²à¸ เรื่องà¸â„¢à¸µà¹â€°à¸žà¸´à¸ªà¸¹à¸ˆà¸â„¢à¹Œà¸§à¹ˆà¸²à¸„à¸â„¢à¹€à¸£à¸²à¸â„¢à¸±à¹â€°à¸â„¢à¹à¸—à¹â€°à¸ˆà¸£à¸´à¸‡à¹à¸¥à¹â€°à¸§à¹„ม่สามารถเป็à¸â„¢ atheist ไดà¹â€° เพราะต่อใหà¹â€°à¸­à¸¢à¸²à¸à¹€à¸›à¹‡à¸â„¢ พระเจà¹â€°à¸²à¸à¹‡à¸ˆà¸°à¹„ม่มีวัà¸â„¢à¸—อดทิà¹â€°à¸‡à¸žà¸§à¸à¹€à¸£à¸²à¸—ี่à¸â„¢à¸µà¹ˆ à¸â€°à¸°à¸â„¢à¸±à¹â€°à¸â„¢à¸à¸²à¸£à¸ˆà¸°à¹€à¸›à¹‡à¸â„¢ atheist ไดà¹â€° คุณจะตà¹â€°à¸­à¸‡à¹€à¸›à¹‡à¸â„¢à¸„à¸â„¢à¸•à¸°à¸§à¸±à¸â„¢à¸•à¸à¹€à¸ªà¸µà¸¢à¸à¹ˆà¸­à¸â„¢ . Orhan Pamuk

Most of the time it's not the Europeans who belittle us. What happens when we look at them is that we belittle ourselves. When we undertake the pilgrimage, it's not just to escape the tyranny at home but also to reach to the depths of our souls. The day arrives when the guilty must return to save those who could not find the courage to leave. Orhan Pamuk

In our household doubts more troubling than these were suffered in silence. The spiritual void I have seen in so many of Istanbul's rich, Westernised, secularist families is evident in these silences. Everyone talks openly about mathematics, success at school, football and having fun, but they grapple with the most basic questions of existence - love, compassion, religion, the meaning of life, jealousy, hatred - in trembling confusion and painful solitude. They light a cigarette, give their attention to the music on the radio, return wordlessly to their inner worlds. . Orhan Pamuk

My fear was not the fear of God but, as in the case of the whole Turkish secular bourgeoisie, fear of the anger of those who believe in God too zealously(...) I experienced the guilt complex as something personal, originated less from the fear of distancing myself from God than from distancing myself from the sense of community shared by the entire city . Orhan Pamuk

Sometimes I sensed that the books I read in rapid succession had set up some sort of murmur among themselves, transforming my head into an orchestra pit where different musical instruments sounded out, and I would realize that I could endure this life because of these musicales going on in my head. Orhan Pamuk

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. Orhan Pamuk

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. Orhan Pamuk

We don't need more museums that try to construct the historical narratives of a society, community, team, nation, state, tribe, company, or species. We all know that the ordinary, everyday stories of individuals are riches, more humane, and much more joyful. Orhan Pamuk

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

Many years before, Ka had explained to me that when a good poet is confronted with difficult facts that he knows to be true but also inimical to poetry, he has no choice but to feel to the margins; it was, he said, this very retreat that allowed him to hear the hidden music that is the source of all art. Orhan Pamuk

We read novels because we want to see the world through other experiences, other beings, other eyes, other cultures. Orhan Pamuk

Perhaps one day someone from a distant land will listen to this story of mine. Isn't this what lies behind the desire to be inscribed in the pages of a book? Isn't it just for the sake of this delight that sultans and viziers proffer bags of gold to have their histories written? Orhan Pamuk

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. Orhan Pamuk

...the waiting was torture, the worst Ka had ever known. It was this pain, this deadly wait, he now remembered, that had made him afraid to fall in love. Orhan Pamuk

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. Orhan Pamuk

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. Orhan Pamuk

When, after hours of lovemaking, we quickly dressed and leftthe apartment, I sometimes thought that Füsun was also taking care not to get “carried away” by herfeelings for me. A proper understanding of my story depends, I think, on a full appreciation of thepleasure we took from these sweet shared moments. I am certain that the fire at the heart of my tale is thedesire to relive those moments of love, and my attachment to those pleasures. Orhan Pamuk

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. Orhan Pamuk

...at the end of the day there was nothing to be gained by reminding people that everything that had ever been written, even the greatest and most authoritative texts in the world, were about dreams, not real life, dreams conjured up by words. Orhan Pamuk

...it seemed to me that 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 out memories and imaginations, but most of us, in our laziness, rarely exercised these capacities, and forever remained in the same room Orhan Pamuk

The power of things inheres in the memories they gather up inside them, and also in the vicissitudes of our imagination, and our memory--of this there is no doubt. Orhan Pamuk

They, like me, like all of us, had, once upon a time, in a past so far away it seemed like heaven, caught by chance a glimpse of an inner essence, only to forget what it was. It was this lost memory that pained us, reduced us to ruins, though still we struggled to be ourselves. Orhan Pamuk

Remembering the past always comes with an image or a view attached. Orhan Pamuk

To be left with only the trace of a memory is to gaze at an armchair that's still molded to the form of a love who has left never to return: It is to grieve, dear reader, it is to weep. Orhan Pamuk

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? Orhan Pamuk

...and awakening, at that moment, to the thrilling prospect of complete surrender, not just of one’s lips but of one’s entire body to a lover’s mercy, we recognized that the gap between compassion and surrender is love’s darkest, deepest region. Orhan Pamuk

Life is beautiful if you are on the road to somewhere Orhan Pamuk

I need the pain of loneliness to make my imagination work. Orhan Pamuk

The only antidote to the loneliness of the streets was the streets themselves. Orhan Pamuk

A man could be at the coffee-house every evening laughing and playing cards with his friends, he could have so much fun with his classmates that there is never a moment they arent´t exploding into laughter, he could spend every hour of the day chatting with his intimates, but if that man has been abandoned by God, he´d still be the loneliest man on earth. Orhan Pamuk

Maybe you've understood by now that for men like myself, that is, melancholy men for whom love, agony, happiness and misery are just excuses for maintaining eternal loneliness, life offers neither great joy nor great sadness. Orhan Pamuk

As I was looking at myself in the bathroom mirror, it occurred to me that if all else failed, a man could at least kiss himself, and I stared in to the mirror, conjuring up the memory of the couple in the film. I couldn't get the image of their lips out of my mind. But by now I'd realised I'd not even be kissing myself; I'd be kissing the mirror. Orhan Pamuk

What is the meaning of it all, of this...of this world?' Mystery', I heard in my thoughts, or perhaps, 'mercy', but I wasn't certain of either. Orhan Pamuk

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. Orhan Pamuk

I saw myself in the mirror, and from my expression I had a shocking intimation of the rift between my body and my soul. Whereas my face was drained by defeat and shock, inside my head was another universe: I now understood as an elemental fact of life that while I was here, inside my body was a soul, a meaning, that all things were made of desire, touch, and love, that what I was suffering was composed of the same elements. Orhan Pamuk

Despite the loss they were suffering, they'd both relaxed - as people do when they realize they've run out of chances for happiness Orhan Pamuk

Women kill themselves because they hope to gain something, " said Kadife. "Men kill themselves because they've lost hope of gaining anything. Orhan Pamuk

Einstein...even failed physics once, but he'd never thought of giving up school to make a living. Orhan Pamuk

What we essentially want is to draw something unknown to us in all its shadowiness, not something we know in all its illumination. Orhan Pamuk

...every life is like a snowflake: individual existences might look identical from afar, but to understand one´s own eternally mysterious uniqueness one had only to plot the mysteries of one´s own snowflake. Orhan Pamuk

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

Contrary to what the West seems to think, it is not poverty that brings people like us so close to God. It's the fact that no one is more curious than we are to learn why we are here on earth and what will happen to us in the next world. Orhan Pamuk

Suddenly Ka realized he was in love with Ä°pek. And realizing that this love would determine the rest of his life, he was filled with dread. Orhan Pamuk

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. Orhan Pamuk

Believing that Sibel was saying these things to me to make me angry, I got angry. But this is not to say that the fury owed nothing to my partial awareness that she was right. Orhan Pamuk

I do know this much though: If a man resorts to wiles, guile and petty deceptions, it means he's nowhere near being in love. Orhan Pamuk

…he quit drinking coffee, and naturally, his brain stopped working. Orhan Pamuk

My prolonged study of these photographs led me to appreciate the importance of perserving certain moments for prosperity , and as time moved forwards I also came to see what a powerful influence these framed scenes exerted over us as we went about our daily lives. To watch my uncle pose my brother a maths problem , and at the same time to see him in a picture taken thirty-two years earlier ; to watch my father scanning the newspaper and trying , with a half-smile , to catch the tail of a joke rippling across the crowded room, and at that very same moment to see a picture of him to me that my grandmother had framed and frozen these memories so that we could weave them into the present. When, in the tones ordinarily preserved for discussing the founding of a nation , my grandmother spoke of my grandfather who had died so young, and pointed at the frames on the tables and the walls , it seemed that she , likes me , was pulled in two directions , wanting to get on with life but also longing to capture the moment of perfection , savouring the ordinary life but still honouring the ideal. But even as I pondered these dilemmas-if you plucked a special moment from life and framed it , were you defying death , decay and the passage of time. or were you submitting to them ?-I grew very bored with them.pg.13 . Orhan Pamuk

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. Orhan Pamuk

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? Orhan Pamuk

I must be myself, I said over and over. I must forget these people buzzing inside my head, I must forget their voices, their smells, their demands, their love, their hate, and be myself, I must be myself, I told myself, as i gazed down at the legs resting so happily on the stool, and I told myself again as I looked up to watch the smoke I'd blown up to the ceiling; I must be myself, because if I failed to be myself, I become the person they wanted me to be; if I had to be that insufferable person, I'd rather be nothing at all. It would be better if I didn't exist,. . Orhan Pamuk

Those who can truly see, know. Orhan Pamuk

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. Orhan Pamuk

The essential reason for my loneliness is that I don't even know where I belong. Orhan Pamuk

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, the image that comes first to my mind is not a novel, a poem, or a literary tradition; it is the person who shuts himself up in a room, sits down at a table, and, alone, turns inward. Amid his shadows, he builds a new world with words. Orhan Pamuk

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? Orhan Pamuk

My mood, as I identify with each of my heroes, resembles what I used to feel when I played alone as a child. Like all children, I liked to play make-believe, to put myself in someone else's place and imagine dream worlds in which I was a soldier, a famous soccer player, or a great hero. Orhan Pamuk

It's not the content, but the form of thought that counts. Orhan Pamuk

A novelist is essentially a person who covers distance through his patience, slowly, like an ant. A novelist impresses us not by his demonic and romantic vision, but by his patience. Orhan Pamuk

Contrary to what is commonly believed, all murderers are men of extreme faith rather than unbelievers. Orhan Pamuk

Age had not made him less handsome, as is so often the case; it had simply made him less visible. Orhan Pamuk

These were innocent people, so innocent that they thought poverty a crime that wealth would allow them to forget. --- from the notebooks of Celal Salik Orhan Pamuk

Maybe you've heard the story of the man who was so driven by this curiosity that he roamed among soldiers in battlefields. He sought a man who had died and returned to life amid the wounded struggling for their lives in pools of blood, a soldier who could tell him about the secrets of the Otherworld. But one of Tamerlane's warriors, taking the seeker for one of the enemy, cleared him in half with a smooth stroke of his scimitar, causing him to conclude that in the Hereafter man is split in two. Orhan Pamuk

In the cities of the European Franks, women roam about exposing not only their faces, but also their brightly shining hair (after their necks, their most attractive feature), their arms, their beautiful throats, and even, if what Ive heard is true, a portion of their gorgeous legs; as a result, the men of those cities walk about with great difficulty, embarrassed and in extreme pain, because, you see, their front sides are always erect and this fact naturally leads to the paralysis of their society. Undoubtedly, this is why each day the Frank infidel surrenders another fortress to us Ottomans. Orhan Pamuk

To write is to transform that inward gaze into words, to study the worlds into which we pass when we retire into ourselves, and to do so with patience, obstinacy, and joy. Orhan Pamuk

How much can we ever know about the love and pain in another's 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? Even if the world's rich and powerful were to put themselves in the shoes of the rest, how much would they really understand the wretched millions suffering around them? So it is when Orhan the novelist peers into the dark corners of his poet friend's difficult and painful life: How much can he really see? . Orhan Pamuk

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

There are two kinds of Communists: the arrogant ones, who enter the fray hoping to make men out of the people and bring progress to the nation; and the innocent ones, who get involved because they believe in equality and justice. The arrogant ones are obsessed with power; they presume to think for everyone; only bad can come of them. But the innocents? The only harm they do is to themselves. But that's all they ever wanted in the first place. They feel so guilty about the suffering of the poor, and are so keen to share it, that they make their lives miserable on purpose. Orhan Pamuk

I'd been living luminously between two eternities of darknness. Orhan Pamuk

Because, as I would always tell myself so many years later, lying here in my bed: You can't start out again in life, that's a carriage ride you only take once, but with a book in your hand, no matter how confusing and perplexing it might be, once you've finished it, you can always go back to the beginning; if you like, you can read it through again, in order to figure out what you couldn't understand before, in order to understand life, isn't that so, Fatma? . Orhan Pamuk

Dogs do speak, but only to those who know how to listen. Orhan Pamuk

...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 ideals--only people living in rich countries can enjoy such luxuries.' '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. Orhan Pamuk

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. Orhan Pamuk

...when a good poet is confronted with difficult facts that he knows to be true but also are inimical to poetry, he has no choice but to flee to the margins; it was...this very retreat that allowed him to hear the hidden music that is the source of all art. Orhan Pamuk

The sea was as dark as dreams and as deep as sleep. Orhan Pamuk

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

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 now she felt herself to be on the threshold of a new life, a happiness bound to endure for a very long time. Orhan Pamuk

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. Orhan Pamuk

What was the difference between love and the agony of waiting? Like love, the agony of waiting began in the muscles 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

This is the greatest consolation in life. 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. Orhan Pamuk

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. Orhan Pamuk

It was the happiest moment of my life, though I didn't know it. Orhan Pamuk

I asked him about his enemies. He began to count them. The list went on and on...." - Conversations with Yahya Kemal Orhan Pamuk

It’s not enough to be oppressed, you must also be in the right. Most oppressed people are in the wrong to an almost ridiculous degree. What shall I believe in? Orhan Pamuk