Art and literature should help us to get out of our mental cocoons. — Elif Safak Art Copy Share Image
We need a dose of doubt and a dose of faith, to challenge each other. — Elif Safak Challenge Copy Share Image
perhaps it took a stranger to make a woman like her speak her mind. — Elif Safak Heart Copy Share Image
Article Five: If you have no reason or ability to accomplish anything, then just practice the art of becoming. — Elif Safak Ability Copy Share Image
I remember a time when it was ok to make fun of politicians and powerful people. Now, it's not ok anymore. We've… — Elif Safak Comedy Copy Share Image
Time is just an illusion. What you need is to live this very moment. That is all that matters. — Elif Safak Illusion Copy Share Image
Writing is a tribute to solitude. It is choosing introversion over extroversion, lonely hours/days/weeks/years over fun and sociability. — Elif Safak Fun Copy Share Image
I find families intriguing, perhaps because I did not grow up in one. I was raised by a feminist, independent, single mother,… — Elif Safak Because Copy Share Image
I love commuting between languages just like I love commuting between cultures and cities. — Elif Safak Between Copy Share Image
I write with humour about sadness, to introduce an element of sweet to the sour, a bit like Turkish food. — Elif Safak About Copy Share Image
Knowledge that takes you, not beyond yourself is far worse than ignorance. — Elif Safak Funny Copy Share Image
Politicians and leaders who see the media as 'the enemy within' divide society into two clashing cultural camps. Populist demagogues benefit from… — Elif Safak Enemy Copy Share Image
For me, coming from the women's movement, politics is not just about parties and parliament. There is politics in our private space… — Elif Safak Feminism Copy Share Image
Many analysts compare Turkey with countries in the Middle East, but I think we need to compare it with Russia. Both countries… — Elif Safak Analysts Copy Share Image
I write my novels in English first; then they are translated into Turkish by professional translators. Then I take their translation and… — Elif Safak Basically Copy Share Image
In a normal democracy, you protect the individual from the excessive power of the state. In Turkey, power elites try to protect… — Elif Safak Democracy Copy Share Image
Feminists are now being vilified in politics, erdogan used to speak more embracingly, saying he was the leader of everyone, whether they… — Elif Safak Distance Copy Share Image
God is the biggest storyteller, and when we create stories, we connect with him and with each other across cultural, religious and… — Elif Safak Across Copy Share Image
The digital world is developing with such force and such a pace that you simply can't ban or control it. People want… — Elif Safak Bans Copy Share Image
There are two different ways of writing a novel. The first I call the traditional father way, when the novelist slightly situates… — Elif Safak Books Copy Share Image
Part of me always felt like the other, the outsider, the observer. My father had two sons with his second wife, who… — Elif Safak Identity Copy Share Image
I am very worried about this concentration of power, and it's not only because of Erdogan. We have the ballot box, but… — Elif Safak Ballots Copy Share Image
We were all created in His image, and yet we were each created different and unique. No two people are alike. No… — Elif Safak Beats Copy Share Image
Ways of loving from a distance, mating without even touching-Amor platonicus! The ladder of love one is expected to climb higher and… — Elif Safak Amor Copy Share Image
My readers are surprisingly mixed. I have conservative readers - for instance, women with headscarves - but also many liberal, leftist, feminist,… — Elif Safak Books Copy Share Image
We're born into a certain family, nation, class. But if we have no connection whatsoever with the worlds beyond the one we… — Elif Safak Born Copy Share Image
Loneliness and solitude are two different things. When you are lonely, it is easy to delude yourself into believing that you are… — Elif Safak Believe Copy Share Image
“How on earth could she now tell Armanoush that, though only nineteen, she had known many men's hands and did not feel… — Elif Şafak National identity Copy Share Image
When societies go backwards and slide into authoritarianism, nationalism, and tribalism, machismo and sexism are also emboldened. — Elif Safak Also Copy Share Image
How can you blame others for disrespecting you when you think of yourself as unworthy of respect? — Elif Safak Blame Copy Share Image
English, for me, is an acquired language. I started with English at the age of 10. At the time, it was my… — Elif Safak Age Copy Share Image
Writing in another language gives me an additional freedom, an additional way of thinking. It's a challenge, but I like the challenge. — Elif Safak Freedom Copy Share Image
“If we are the same person before and after we loved, that means we haven't loved enough.” — Elif Şafak Loved Copy Share Image
If there is no love between the author and the story, there is no love between the reader and the story. — Elif Safak Author Copy Share Image
Bad writing is like a bad relationship. Don't be addicted to it just because you are familiar with its ways. Let go. — Elif Safak Addicted Copy Share Image
For me, writing stories is one way of feeling connected to the universe and God. — Elif Safak Connected Copy Share Image
