Try to discover who I am from my choice of words and colors, as attentive people like yourselves might examine footprints to catch a thief.
Orhan PamukRead
Nothing changed in my life since I work all the time," Pamuk said then. "I've spent 30 years writing fiction. For the first 10 years I worried about money and no one asked me how much money I made. The second decade I spent money and no one was asking me about that. And I've spent the last 10 years with everyone expecting to hear how I spend the money, which I will not do.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote reflects on the constant presence of work and the shifting perspectives of society regarding money over the author's writing career.
Orhan Pamuk shares his experience over three decades of writing fiction, highlighting how his relationship with money and public perception evolved over time. Initially consumed by financial worries, he later found freedom in spending, only to face societal scrutiny about his expenditures in his later years. This progression illustrates the complexities of an artist's life and how external expectations can shift, yet the core experience of the artist – dedicated work and creativity – remains unchanged.
Themes
WorkMoneyWritingLifeExpectations
In practice
Example use cases
In a motivational speech about dedication, one might quote Pamuk to emphasize the importance of focusing on one's craft rather than societal pressures.
More from Orhan Pamuk
All quotes →The beauty and mystery of this world only emerges through affection, attention, interest and compassion . . . open your eyes wide and actually see this world by attending to its colors, details and irony.
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Where there is true art and genuine virtuosity the artist can paint an incomparable masterpiece without leaving even a trace of his identity.
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It was in Cihangir that i first learned Istanbul was not an anonymous multitude of walled-in lives - a jungle of apartments where no one knew who was dead or who was celebrating what - but an archipelago of neighbourhoods in which everyone knew each other.
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We had no desire to live in Istanbul, nor in Paris or New York. Let them have their discos and dollars, their skycrapers and supersonics transports. Let them have their radios and their color TV, hey, we have ours, don't we? But we have something they don't have. Heart. We have heart. Look, look how the light of life seeps into my very heart
Orhan PamukRead
These political movements flourish on the margins of Turkish society because of poverty and because of the people's feeling that they are not being represented.
Orhan PamukRead
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