Orhan Pamuk

We fall in love more deeply when we're unhappy.

— Orhan Pamuk

“The greatest happiness is when the eye discovers beauty where neither then mind conceived of nor the hand intended any.”

— Orhan Pamuk

“...for a novel need not be full of sorrow just because its heroes are suffering.”

— Orhan Pamuk

For me, Westernization is not about consuming fanciful goods; it's about a system of free speech, democracy, egalitarianism and respect for the…

— 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

All great masters, in their work, seek that profound void within color and outside time.

— Orhan Pamuk

“I tako, što više bojim, ja kao da svijetu kazujem budi i svijet biva iz moje boje krvi. Onaj koji ne vidi,…

— Orhan Pamuk

People only tell lies when there is something they are terribly frightened of losing.

— Orhan Pamuk

“A writer is someone who spends years patiently trying to discover the second being inside him, and the world that makes him…

— Orhan Pamuk

To appropriate an invention, be it artistic or technical, you have to have at least a part of your spirit embracing it…

— Orhan Pamuk

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

— Orhan Pamuk

What is the thing you want most from me? What can I do to make you love me?' Be yourself,' said Ipek.

— Orhan Pamuk

“It was the happiest moment of my life, though I didn't know it.”

— Orhan Pamuk

“I amused myself with mental games in which I changed the focus, deceived myself, forgot altogether what had been troubling me or…

— Orhan Pamuk

How much can we ever know about the love and pain in another's heart? How much can we hope to understand those…

— 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…

— Orhan Pamuk

We had no desire to live in Istanbul, nor in Paris or New York. Let them have their discos and dollars, their…

— Orhan Pamuk

“With the engine stalled, we would notice the deep silence reigning in the park around us, in the summer villa before us,…

— Orhan Pamuk

If the Americans would only take all the money they have spent on this war (Iraq), and spend it like Soros has…

— Orhan Pamuk

When the whole world reads your books, is there any other happiness for a writer? I am happy that my books are…

— Orhan Pamuk

“Despite the loss they were suffering, they'd both relaxed - as people do when they realize they've run out of chances for…

— Orhan Pamuk

“After all, nothing can be as astounding as life. Except for writing. Yes, of course, except for writing, the sole consolation.”

— Orhan Pamuk

Enjoyment of football is part of the social context, and I have lost my faith in this social context.

— Orhan Pamuk

In fact, my entire childhood consisted of looking at photographs in which the viewer sees the ball behind the line, looking through…

— Orhan Pamuk

“God takes note of His creatures’ true intentions. The Lord favors a man who intends to fast during Ramadan over a man…

— Orhan Pamuk