Quotes from Orhan Pamuk

el arte que es simplemente malo ni siquiera es capaz de provocarnos repugnancia.

La poesía y la pintura, el color y la palabra, son hermanos, ya lo sabes.

Por qué nos inquieta un hombre bañado en lágrimas? Una mujer que llora puede considerarse una parte excepcional pero conmovedora y digna de pena, de nuestra vida cotidiana, la acogemos con sinceridad y cariño. Pero ante un hombre que llora nos llena un sentimiento de desesperación. Es como si para él hubiera llegado el fin del mundo o como si él hubiera llegado al límite de lo que podía hacer.

YaÅŸad???m?z hayat?n bir baÅŸkas?n?n düÅŸü olduÄŸunu kan?tlaman?n hiçbir ÅŸeyi deÄŸiÅŸtirmeyeceÄŸini biliyordum art?k.

sometimes I wonder what my interior actually is. A heart that goes pitter-patter and thoughts that glide by like little paper boats on flowing water

Mutlulukla bir dünyay? seyrettim, Canan, seni severek...

Contrary to what is commonly believed, all murderers are men of extreme faith rather than unbelievers.

Zengin olmak belki de sürekli bir gibi yapmak haliydi.(s.188)

Mutlu olabilmek için her gün bir miktar edebiyatla ilgilenmem gerekiyor.

It's not the content, but the form of thought that counts.

Ist nicht eigentliches Ziel von Roman und Museum, unsere Erinnerungen so aufrichtig wie möglich zu erzählen und dadurch unser Glück in das Glück anderer zu verwandeln?

I am so fortunate to be red! I'm fiery. I'm strong. I know men take notice of me and that I cannot be resisted.

and awakening, at that moment, to the thrilling prospect of complete surrender, not just of one's lips but of one's entire body to a lover's mercy, we recognized that the gap between compassion and surrender is love's darkest, deepest region.

AÅŸk evlilikten sonra gelir. Unutma: Evlenmeden önce alevlenen aÅŸk yang?n? evlilikle söner ve geriye boÅŸ ve kederli bir yang?n yeri kal?r. Evlendikten sonra duyulan aÅŸk da biter elbette, ama onun yerini mutluluk al?r. Buna raÄŸmen baz? aceleci budalalar evlenmeden önce â??k olup yana yana bütün aÅŸk? tüketirler. Niye? Çünkü hayatta en büyük amac? aÅŸk sanarlar.

What we essentially want is to draw something unknown to us in all its shadowiness, not something we know in all its illumination.

Heroic dreams are the consolation of the unhappy. After all, when people like us say we're being heroic, it usually means we're about to kill each other--or kill ourselves.

Pour elle, aimer, c'était prendre tous les risques et donner notre vie pour quelqu'un, oui, l'amour était une chose de cet ordre. Mais dans la vie, cela ne se produisait qu'une seule fois.

At times like this what matters is not our words but our demeanor, not the magnitude or elegance of our grief but the degree to which we can express fellowship with those around us. I sometimes think that our love of cigarettes owes nothing to the nicotine, and everything to their ability to fill the meaningless void and offer an easy way of feeling as if we are doing something purposeful.

ALIF: Painting brings to life what the mind sees, as a feast for the eyes. LAM: What the eye sees in the world enters the painting to the degree that it serves the mind. MIM: Consequently, beauty is the eye discovering in our own world what the mind already knows.

in this night, pure and everlasting, like an old fairy tale, being Turkish felt infinitely better than being poor.

I always think that it's wrong to put images of my protagonists on the cover of my novels because readers can identify with characters only if they are given the chance to imagine them independently.

I was trying to think of something to say that would sound more meaningful, but when you get down to it, words aren't very useful at baring our souls, they're just something else to hide behind.

when a good poet is confronted with difficult facts that he knows to be true but also are inimical to poetry, he has no choice but to flee to the margins; it was...this very retreat that allowed him to hear the hidden music that is the source of all art.

La razón fundamental de mi soledad es que ni siquiera yo sé de qué historia formo parte.