Orhan Pamuk quotes - page 3

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. (Orhan Pamuk)
We live but for a short time, we see but very little, and we know almost nothing; so, at least, let's do some dreaming. Have yourself a very good Sunday, my dear readers. View quote
Orhan Pamuk
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. View quote
Orhan Pamuk
I don't want to be a tree; I want to be its meaning. View quote
Orhan Pamuk
Colour is the touch of the eye, Music to the deaf, A word out of darkness. View quote
Orhan Pamuk
My hero wants to belong too, but he doesn't want to give up all the things he came to value in the west. View quote
Orhan Pamuk
As always after drinking too much, I felt like my own ghost trying to take it's first solo walk outside the body. View quote
Orhan Pamuk
I really don't want to portray the Islamists as simply evil, the way it's often done in the west. View quote
Orhan Pamuk
There's been quite a clear upswing in nationalist sentiments. Everyone is talking about it, in Turkey as well. View quote
Orhan Pamuk
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. View quote
Orhan Pamuk
Culture is mix. Culture means a mix of things from other sources. And my town, Istanbul, was this kind of mix. Istanbul, in fact, and my work, is a testimony to the fact that East and West combine cultural gracefully, or sometimes in an anarchic way, came together, and that is what we should search for. (Orhan Pamuk)
In a city, you can be alone in a crowd, and in fact what makes the city a city is that it lets you hide the strangeness in your mind inside its teeming multitudes. View quote
Orhan Pamuk
... love is deep attention, deep compassion... View quote
Orhan Pamuk
Happiness means being close to the one you love, that's all. (Taking immediate possession is not necessary.) View quote
Orhan Pamuk
My unhappiness protects me from life. View quote
Orhan Pamuk
I consider myself Istanbul's storyteller. My subject matter is my town. I consider it my job to explore the hidden patterns of my city's clandestine corners, its shady, mysterious places, the things I love. View quote
Orhan Pamuk
We fall in love more deeply when we're unhappy. View quote
Orhan Pamuk
These political movements flourish on the margins of Turkish society because of poverty and because of the people's feeling that they are not being represented. View quote
Orhan Pamuk
The opponents of this process have always tried to vilify westernization as a poor imitation. View quote
Orhan Pamuk
The hero of the book does long to experience God. But his conception of God is very western. View quote
Orhan Pamuk
Istanbul is a vast place. There are very conservative neighbourhoods, there are places that are upper class, Westernised, consuming Western culture. (Orhan Pamuk)
At first my publisher had reservations about publishing it in the form you are familiar with. View quote
Orhan Pamuk
When another writer in another house is not free, no writer is free. View quote
Orhan Pamuk
The writers secret is not inspiration - for it is never clear where it comes from - it is his stubbornness, his patience. View quote
Orhan Pamuk
I don't like to make strong statements. I want to write strong novels ... I keep my deep radical things for my novels. View quote
Orhan Pamuk