Quotes from Orhan Pamuk

Do koje nam je mjere dano doživjeti patnje i ljubavi drugih ljudi? Koliko možemo razumjeti one oko sebe ?ije su boli i bijeda i razo?aranja dublji i teži od naših? Ako razumjeti zna?i staviti se na mjesto onih koji su od nas druga?iji, jesu li bogataši i suci ovoga svijeta ikada shvatili nebrojene patnike koji su ih okruživali?

El verdadero placer de leer una novela empieza con la capacidad de ver el mundo no desde el exterior, sino a través de los ojos de los protagonistas que viven en ese mundo.

Is this the secret of Istanbul—that beneath its grand history, its living poverty, its outward-looking monuments, and its sublime landscapes, its poor hide the city's soul inside a fragile web?

But if you don't have any principles, and if you don't have faith, you can't be happy at all," said Kadife. "That's true. But in a brutal country like ours where human life is cheap, it's stupid to destroy yourself for the sake of your beliefs. Beliefs, high ideals—only people living in rich countries can enjoy such luxuries.

But as nothing, Western or local, came to fill the void, the great drive to Westernise amounted mostly to the erasure of the past; the effect on culture was reductive and stunting

Why should we expect a city to cure us of our spiritual pains? Perhaps because we cannot help loving our city like a family. But we still have to decide which part of the city we love and invent the reasons why.

A letter doesn't communicate by words alone. A letter, just like a book, can be read by smelling it, touching it and fondling it. Thereby, intelligent folk will say, "Go on then, read what the letter tells you!" whereas the dull-witted will say, "Go on then, read what he's written!

They paint what they see, whereas we paint what we look at.

He had no clear understanding of how he had been tricked, no memory of how he'd arrived at this moment, and so the strangeness in his mind became a part of the trap he had fallen into.

There is a danger the wheat might burn with the chaff.

la palabra sentimentalisch para describir el estado de ánimo que se ha apartado de la simplicidad y el poder de la naturaleza y ha quedado demasiado atrapado en sus propias emociones y pensamientos.

Kad sam postao toliko nesretan da više ni za što nisam bio sposoban - tad sam po?eo misliti na sre?u.

And if I happen to tell a lie or two from time to time, it is so you do not come to any false conclusions about me.

What would he have to say about the Nabokov Museum in the same city, which during the Stalin era had served as the office of the domestic board of censors?

Before the art of illumination there was blackness and afterward there will also be blackness. Through our colors, paints, art and love, we remember that Allah had commanded us to "See"! To know is to remember that you've seen. To see is to know without remembering. Thus, painting is remembering the blackness.

The poem Ka wrote during the ensuing silence, without a single pause or missing word, he would later call 'Heaven'. If he placed it on the 'Imagination' axis of the snowflake, far from the centre, right at the top, this was not to suggest that Heaven was the future of which we dream: for Ka, Heaven was the place where you kept alive the dreams of your memories.

Pero nuestros cerebros se parecen a un glotón que continuamente buscara historias para engullirlas. ¡Tenemos que librarnos de esa afición a los cuentos! Y entonces seremos libres. ¡Entonces veremos el mundo tal y como es!

wir wären die Dichter unseres eigenen Lebens, wenn wir erst in den Zeitungen schrieben, was uns geschehen wird, und dann staunend die schönen Dinge erleben, die wir verfasst haben

YüreÄŸim, nedense sahile vurmak üzere olan koskocaman bir dalga gibi aÄŸz?m?n içinde kabarm??t?.

Here is what this adventure taught me: It's true that the whole world is against the Turks, but the biggest enemies of the Turks are Turks themselves.

Eso que llamas cuentos no son cuentos, ¡son realidades! —decía Nilgün—. Son necesarias para explicar el mundo.

Trenutak samoubojstva za žene je trenutak kad su najusamljenije, i kad najbolje shva?aju što zna?i biti žena.

Bir sure sonra Suleyman da talepleri ile hakikat uzakliga alisti.

Throughout history, religious leaders and other honorable men of conscience have always warned against this shaming confusion. They remind us that the poor have hearts, minds, humanity, and wisdom just like everyone else. When Hans Hansen sees a poor man he feels sorry for him. He would not necessarily assume that the man's a fool who's blown his chances or a drunk who's lost his will.