Orhan Pamuk

“would very much like to see you. We await your company at supper on May 19.”

— Orhan Pamuk

I always enjoy impersonating my characters in the first-person singular.

— Orhan Pamuk

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

— Orhan Pamuk

“Mutlu olabilmek için her gün bir miktar edebiyatla ilgilenmem gerekiyor.”

— Orhan Pamuk

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

— Orhan Pamuk

“... los colores no pueden comprenderse, se sienten.”

— Orhan Pamuk

“Ahora sé que no cambiaría nada demostrar que la vida que vivimos no es sino el sueño de otro.”

— Orhan Pamuk

“It's everywhere," he said. "No matter where you go, it grabs you by the collar.”

— Orhan Pamuk

“But as nothing, Western or local, came to fill the void, the great drive to Westernise amounted mostly to the erasure of…

— Orhan Pamuk

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

— Orhan Pamuk

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

— Orhan Pamuk

I sometimes feel nervous because I give stupid answers to certain pointless questions. It happens in Turkish as much as in English.…

— 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…

— Orhan Pamuk

I get used to my fountain pens and my clothes, and I can never throw them away. I replace them only when…

— Orhan Pamuk

“El significado de los colores es que están ante nosotros y podemos verlos - le contestó el otro -. No se puede…

— Orhan Pamuk

“In a city where men are killing each other like animals just to make it a happier place, who has the right…

— Orhan Pamuk

“In those moments, he would realize that this city where he’d spent forty years of his life, where he’d passed through thousands…

— Orhan Pamuk

I wanted to tell a romantic and dark side of Ottoman history that was also slightly political, saying to the previous generation…

— Orhan Pamuk

“My fear was not the fear of God but, as in the case of the whole Turkish secular bourgeoisie, fear of the…

— Orhan Pamuk

“And before long, the music, the views rushing past the window, my fathers voice and the narrow cobblestone streets all merged into…

— Orhan Pamuk

“The “sage of love” within me (acquired from who knew what egregious experience) was crowing about Füsun’s misstep: By speaking too sincerely,…

— Orhan Pamuk

We should not judge Islam by terrorists. All civilizations and cultures produce terrorists. Every time there is a flag-burning, killing, or provocative…

— Orhan Pamuk

...every person has a star, every star has a friend, and for every person carrying a star there is someone else who…

— 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…

— Orhan Pamuk

“After a time, my hand had become as skilled as my eyes. So if I was drawing a very fine tree, it…

— Orhan Pamuk

When two people love each other as we do, no one can come between them, no one," I said, amazed at the…

— Orhan Pamuk

“It has happened to all of us. One day, one ordinary day when we imagine we're making our routine rounds in the…

— Orhan Pamuk

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…

— Orhan Pamuk

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…

— Orhan Pamuk

“In the cities of the European Franks, women roam about exposing not only their faces, but also their brightly shining hair (after…

— Orhan Pamuk

“You'll forget it all: the cruel power of your superiors, the thoughtless things you wish you'd never said, the stupidities, the unfinished…

— Orhan Pamuk

“My prolonged study of these photographs led me to appreciate the importance of preserving certain moments for prosperity, and as time moved…

— Orhan Pamuk

Real museums are places where Time is transformed into Space.

— Orhan Pamuk

For if a lover's face survives emblazoned on your heart, the world is still your home.

— Orhan Pamuk

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

— Orhan Pamuk

When I paint, I definitely live in the present, like someone in a shower whistling or singing.

— Orhan Pamuk

I really don't want to portray the Islamists as simply evil, the way it's often done in the west.

— Orhan Pamuk

Happiness is holding someone in your arms and knowing you hold the whole world.

— Orhan Pamuk

I do not believe in a personal connection to God; that's where it gets transcendental.

— Orhan Pamuk

The real choice we have to make is between peace and nationalism.

— Orhan Pamuk