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
I have been attacked in Turkey more for my interviews than for my books. Political polemicists and columnists do not read novels there.
Interpretation
Orhan Pamuk suggests that his outspoken views are more controversial than his literary works.
In this quote, Orhan Pamuk reflects on his experiences in Turkey, emphasizing that his political interviews garner more scrutiny than his novels. This indicates a cultural landscape where political discourse outweighs the appreciation for literary art, revealing a disconnect between the two realms in his home country.
In practice
During a literary festival, one could use this quote to highlight the interplay between politics and literature.
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.
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.
Where there is true art and genuine virtuosity the artist can paint an incomparable masterpiece without leaving even a trace of his identity.
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.
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
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.
Lost Illusion is the undisclosed title of every novel.
It is a pity, in my opinion, that no prize exists for the writer who best refrains from adding to the world's bad books.
Fiction and essays can create empathy for the theoretical stranger.
English writing tends to fall into two categories - the big, baggy epic novel or the fairly controlled, tidy novel. For a long time, I was a fan of the big, baggy novel, but there's definitely an advantage to having a little bit more control.
Americans think African writers will write about the exotic, about wildlife, poverty, maybe AIDS. They come to Africa and African books with certain expectations.
I can tell you that as a writer and as a reader, I regard character as king. Or queen. No matter how riveting the action or interesting the plot twists, if I don't feel like I'm meeting someone who feels real, I'm not going to be compelled to read further.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.