perhaps it took a stranger to make a woman like her speak her mind. — Elif Safak Heart Copy Share Image
We need a dose of doubt and a dose of faith, to challenge each other. — Elif Safak Challenge Copy Share Image
Art and literature should help us to get out of our mental cocoons. — Elif Safak Art 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 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
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
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
How can you blame others for disrespecting you when you think of yourself as unworthy of respect? — Elif Safak Copy Share Image
When societies go backwards and slide into authoritarianism, nationalism, and tribalism, machismo and sexism are also emboldened. — Elif Safak Copy Share Image
Knowledge that takes you, not beyond yourself is far worse than ignorance. — Elif Safak Funny 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 Copy Share Image
Obviously, Turkey is not a typical authoritarian regime, and obviously it's very important that there are free elections. But it's also obvious… — Elif Safak Authoritarian Copy Share Image
After the Ankara bombings on October 10, people were asked to hold a minute of silence, but many refused. Our society can't… — Elif Safak Copy Share Image
I was in Madrid as a young girl and a teenager. I'll never forget when I went to the Prado Museum for… — Elif Safak Big impact Copy Share Image
The only way to learn writing is by writing. Talent, as charming as it sounds, amounts to no more than 12 per… — Elif Safak Copy Share Image
When I looked at people like Goya and Pina Bausch, the message I got was just do what you're passionate about. Don't… — Elif Safak Artist Copy Share Image
With 'The Forty Rules of Love,' I wanted to write a love story. But I wanted a love story with a spiritual… — Elif Safak Copy Share Image
Books change us. Books save us. I know this because it happened to me. Books saved me. So, I do believe through… — Elif Safak Copy Share Image
If you are a writer from Turkey, Pakistan, Nigeria, Egypt, you don't have the luxury of being apolitical. You can't say, 'That's… — Elif Safak Apolitical 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
We were all created in His image, and yet we were each created different and unique. No two people are alike. No… — Elif Safak 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 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 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
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
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
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
“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
I love commuting between languages just like I love commuting between cultures and cities. — Elif Safak 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
For me, writing stories is one way of feeling connected to the universe and God. — Elif Safak Copy Share Image
I believe in optimism of the will, pessimism of the intellect. But my hope is the people, the society, which is ahead… — Elif Safak 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
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 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
“If we are the same person before and after we loved, that means we haven't loved enough.” — Elif Şafak Copy Share Image
