--- title: "1 Europe Constantinople Quotes By Ian McDonald" description: "1 Europe Constantinople quotes by Ian McDonald. Plus more from Ian McDonald and more Europe Constantinople sayings from other authors." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/144/ian-mcdonald-14570_history_in-our-five-thousand-years-of-civilizati_437924.jpg" --- > [“In our five thousand years of civilization, our history has often been the handmaid of geography. We lie exactly midway between the North Pole and the Equator. We are the gateway between the Fertile Crescent and Europe, between landlocked Central…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ian-mcdonald/in-our-five-thousand-years-of-civilization-our-history-has-often-been/) [Ian McDonald](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ian-mcdonald/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/144/ian-mcdonald-14570_history_in-our-five-thousand-years-of-civilizati_437924.jpg) ## More by Ian McDonald > [“Najia can feel yts subdermal activators against her forearm. Not man not woman not both not neither. Nute. Another way of being human, speaking…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ian-mcdonald/najia-can-feel-yts-subdermal-activators-against-her-forearm-not-man/) [Ian McDonald](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ian-mcdonald/) > [“Is this a Kurdish thing?’ ‘What?’ ‘Being deliberately contradictory?”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ian-mcdonald/is-this-a-kurdish-thing-what-being-deliberately-contradictory/) [Ian McDonald](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ian-mcdonald/) > [“And how did you find the East?’ ‘It’s a shit-hole. But it’s our shit-hole.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ian-mcdonald/and-how-did-you-find-the-east-it-s-a-shit-hole-but-it-s-our-shit-hole/) [Ian McDonald](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ian-mcdonald/) > [“A joyful task,’ he says and she realizes that he welcomes the idea of years of searching, tile by tile, inscription by inscription, cornice…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ian-mcdonald/a-joyful-task-he-says-and-she-realizes-that-he-welcomes-the-idea-of/) [Ian McDonald](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ian-mcdonald/) > [“It's the superhero problem . . . .Superpowers make everything personal. Batman versus Joker. Fantastic Four versus Galactus. The Big G might be the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ian-mcdonald/it-s-the-superhero-problem-superpowers-make-everything-personal/) [Ian McDonald](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ian-mcdonald/) > [“Water splashes and runs in a film across the glass floor suspended above the mosaics. The Hacı Kadın hamam is a typical post-Union fusion…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ian-mcdonald/water-splashes-and-runs-in-a-film-across-the-glass-floor-suspended/) [Ian McDonald](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ian-mcdonald/) > [“Marcelina loved that miniscule, precise moment when the needle entered her face. It was silver; it was pure. It was the violence that healed,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ian-mcdonald/marcelina-loved-that-miniscule-precise-moment-when-the-needle-entered/) [Ian McDonald](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ian-mcdonald/) > [“If there is one thing will kill Turkey,’ she would say, ‘it is a famine of ideas.’ No one in her coterie dared mention…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ian-mcdonald/if-there-is-one-thing-will-kill-turkey-she-would-say-it-is-a-famine/) [Ian McDonald](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ian-mcdonald/) > [The geek of the Earth are a tribe and they are mighty.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ian-mcdonald/the-geek-of-the-earth-are-a-tribe-and-they-are-mighty/) [Ian McDonald](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ian-mcdonald/) > [“In our five thousand years of civilization, our history has often been the handmaid of geography. We lie exactly midway between the North Pole…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ian-mcdonald/in-our-five-thousand-years-of-civilization-our-history-has-often-been/) [Ian McDonald](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ian-mcdonald/) > [“I do rather like birds,’ Abdullah Unul says. ‘They’re busy, active little things. They make do. Have you ever thought, if Istanbul were to…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ian-mcdonald/i-do-rather-like-birds-abdullah-unul-says-they-re-busy-active-little/) [Ian McDonald](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ian-mcdonald/) > [“The army doctor who had patched up his hands and examined him after the rescue at Kayişdaği told him a story about the Mevlana,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ian-mcdonald/the-army-doctor-who-had-patched-up-his-hands-and-examined-him-after/) [Ian McDonald](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ian-mcdonald/) > [“This is always always always what she wished a bazaar to be. Demre, proudly claiming to be the birthplace of Santa Claus, was direly…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ian-mcdonald/this-is-always-always-always-what-she-wished-a-bazaar-to-be-demre/) [Ian McDonald](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ian-mcdonald/) > [“It is a fake, but a good fake. Turkey is the land of the masterful fake. But it is far far from that hateful…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ian-mcdonald/it-is-a-fake-but-a-good-fake-turkey-is-the-land-of-the-masterful-fake/) [Ian McDonald](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ian-mcdonald/) > [In the Age of Kali the meek and helpless will be preyed upon without mercy, and there will be a surplus of AK-47s.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ian-mcdonald/in-the-age-of-kali-the-meek-and-helpless-will-be-preyed-upon-without/) [Ian McDonald](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ian-mcdonald/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "ItemList", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/europe-constantinople/ian-mcdonald/#itemlist", "name": "1 Europe Constantinople Quotes By Ian McDonald", "numberOfItems": 1, "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“In our five thousand years of civilization, our history has often been the handmaid of geography. We lie exactly midway between the North Pole and the Equator. We are the gateway between the Fertile Crescent and Europe, between landlocked Central Asia and the Mediterranean world and beyond that, the Atlantic. Peoples and empires have ebbed and flowed across this land. Even today sixty per cent of Europe’s gas supply either passes down the Bosphorus or runs under our very feet through pipelines. We have always been the navel of the world. Yet our favoured location by its very nature surrounded us with historical enemies; to the north, Russia to the south, the Arabs; to the east, Persia and to the west, the Red Apple itself, Europe.’ The Red Apple, the myth of Ottoman imperialism. When Mehmet the Conqueror looked out from the parapets of his fortress of Europe at Constantinople, the Red Apple had been the golden globe in the open palm of Justinian’s statue in the Hippodrome, the symbol of Roman power and ambition. Mehmet rode through the crumbling Hippodrome, the decaying streets of dying Byzantium and the Red Apple became Rome itself. The truth of the Red Apple was that it would always be unattainable, for it was the westering spirit, the globe of the setting sun itself. ‘Now we find ourselves caught between Arab oil, Russian gas and Iranian radiation and we found that the only way we could take the Red Apple was by joining it.’ This is poor stuff, Georgios thinks. 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