10 Extraordinary Quotes By Orhan Pamuk

These quotes by Orhan Pamuk resonate through time. Surprisingly, this Turkish author, and winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2006, has a completely unique way of understanding the world.

He started out reading architecture, but later dropped it for literature, even though his family was very much against it. Many of his quotes show how strong and independent he was.

Writing books is a way of understanding life, says Pamuk. His short story,  The White Castle, was highly praised for its sincerity and depth. You should definitely read all his short stories. But these short quotes by Orhan Pamuks are also ingenious and full of life. Here are some of them.

Love: A theme in Orhan Pamuk’s short stories

As with many other great writers,  love is one of the recurring themes in Orhan Pamuk’s short stories. He has a very sharp and yet realistic view of this feeling. Here is an excerpt from one of his short stories:  “Tell me, does love make one a fool, or is it only fools who fall in love? “.

Despite his skepticism, Pamuk also believes in love and redemption:  “Later we went to a café, read the book again and talked for several hours. It was love. ”

Time and moments

Time is man-made. The timing of things is nothing more than a desire for control. Regulation of time is regulation of life. It is the exercise of power.

Time can be measured, regulated and enforced, but  it is still mysterious. In another of our quotes by Orhan Pamuk, he says,  “No one recognizes the happiest moment of their life when they are in it.” This means that we enjoy the moment afterwards, and not when we go through it.

Quotes by Orhan Pamuk on Joy

The Turkish writer does not really believe in joy. He says that it is only fabricated or real when it arises in the absence of intelligence:  “Joy and poverty can only exist at the same time for a short time. Either joy overwhelms the poet, or the poem is so real that it destroys his joy. ”

Here is another of the quotes by Orhan Pamuk that speaks of joy:  “Every intelligent person knows that life is beautiful and that the purpose of life is to be happy. But it seems that only idiots are really happy. How can we explain that? ”. In this quote, he repeats  that happiness is fabricated and that only idiots are happy.

The world and its injustices

In one of his short stories, Orhan Pamuk writes:  “Children were the first victims of immorality, which led to the decay of the great civilizations and the breakdown of their memories.” This statement  connects the lack of morality with the absence of memory.

“Injustice and bad people exist in the world. The important thing is to live in a way that protects the natural goodness of man. ” This means that people should live to be good. We should not deviate from our true nature.

There is still hope

Pamuk has a collection of reflections that highlight the beauty of life. Here is a quote about this:  “When you have inner self-confidence, you do what your heart says and everything will be fine. ”

This small collection of quotes by Orhan Pamuk gives us a small glimpse of his short stories. They have been translated into more than twenty languages ​​and have gained international recognition.