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.

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

Painting is the silence of thought and the music of sight.

Age had not made him less handsome, as is so often the case; it had simply made him less visible.

The first thing I learned at school was that some people are idiots; the second thing I learned was that some are even worse.

Self-hatred is OK. I have self-hatred, too. It's OK. What's bad is if you don't know how to get out of it, don't know how to manage it. Self-hatred is, in fact, a good thing if you can clearly see the mechanism of it, because it helps you to understand others.

I don't want to be a tree, I want to be its meaning.

Suddenly Ka realized he was in love with İpek. And realizing that this love would determine the rest of his life, he was filled with dread.

It is not my intention to explain Turkey, its culture and its problems. My literature has a universal concern: I want to bring people and their emotions closer to my readers, not explain Turkish politics.

If I think back on the books to which I have devoted my entire life, I am most surprised by those moments when I have felt as if the sentences, dreams, and pages that have made me so ecstatically happy have not come from my own imagination -- that another power has found them and generously presented them to me.

Immersing oneself in the problems of a book is a good way to keep from thinking of love.

Nothing can be as astounding as life. Except for writing. Yes, of course, except for writing, the sole consolation.

The writers secret is not inspiration -- for it is never clear where it comes from -- it is his stubbornness, his patience.

As Ka would later write, it may have been now, as they were holding each other and weeping, that Ipek discovered something for the first time: To live in indecision, to waver between defeat and a new life, offered as much pleasure as pain.

Censorship should never be allowed. One should be able to say anything. But I refuse to let politics be foisted on me.

My religion is complicated. Literature is my true religion. After all, I come from a completely non-religious family.

Great changes in the direction of peace have often come from people who were no great advocates of peace to begin with.

Life can't be all that bad,' i'd think from time to time. 'Whatever happens, i can always take a long walk along the Bosphorus.

I strongly believe that the art of the novel works best when the writer identifies with whoever he or she is writing about. Novels in the end are based on the human capacity, compassion, and I can show more compassion to my characters if I write in a first person singular.

I came across humanity in Istanbul, and all I know about life comes from Istanbul, and definitely, I am writing about Istanbul. I also love the city because I live there, it has formed me, and it's me. Of course it is natural. If somebody lived all his life in Delhi, he will write about Delhi.