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Sometimes I would see them not as mementos of the blissful hours but as the tangible precious debris of the storm raging in my soul.

Orhan Pamuk

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Orhan Pamuk
Age: 72
Born: 1952
Born: June 7
Academic
Author
Essayist
Journalist
Novelist
Screenwriter
Writer
İstanbul
Pamuk
Ferit Orhan Pamuk
Sometimes
Debris
Would
Raging
Tangible
Precious
Rage
Storm
Mementos
Hours
Memento
Soul
Blissful

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Books, which we mistake for consolation, only add depth to our sorrow.
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Great changes in the direction of peace have often come from people who were no great advocates of peace to begin with.
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When another writer in another house is not free, no writer is free.
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I see Turkey's future as being in Europe, as one of many prosperous, tolerant, democratic countries.
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More than anything I am a novelist. But for me, an author's job is not only to create linguistically accomplished works. As an author I also want to stimulate discussion.
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As much as I live I shall not imitate them or hate myself for being different to them
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Istanbul is certainly in the process of transforming itself into an attractive cultural, tourist and financial center. But there are also millions of sad stories in this giant sea of immigration, poverty, misery and contradictions. So much anger, frustration and fury.
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Ka knew very well that life was a meaningless string of random incidents
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Nationalism stems from catastrophes, whether they are caused by earthquakes or lost wars.
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We're not stupid! We're just poor! And we have a right to insist on this distinction
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Well, on the one hand the Turks have the legitimate need to defend their national dignity - and this includes being recognized as a part of the west and Europe.
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What was venerated as style was nothing more than an imperfection or flaw that revealed the guilty hand.
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Of course in Turkey I'm seen as being on the 'Western' side, criticised by the nationalists, criticised by the communitarians as not belonging. Even, sometimes, criticised for looking at my country through Western eyes. And in the Western media I'm portrayed as belonging to the East.
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The urbanized life has lead to the destruction of the legends.
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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
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Many great authors of the 19th century wrote under conditions of strict censorship. The great thing about the art of writing a novel, is that you can write about anything. All you have to say is that it's fiction.
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I'm a relatively disciplined writer who composes the whole book before beginning to execute and write it. Of course, you can't hold - you cannot imagine a whole novel before you write it there are limits to human memory and imagination. Lots of things come to your mind as you write a book, but again, I make a plan, chapter, know the plot.
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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.
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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 ideas? Only people in rich countries can enjoy such luxuries.
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I really don't want to portray the Islamists as simply evil, the way it's often done in the west.
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