617 Quotes by Orhan Pamuk

Football can teach us that although a team’s individual players may be weak, it can still be successful if it uses common sense. Or that we should not attack anyone physically when we suffer a depressing defeat.

In actuality, we don’t look for smiles in pictures of bliss, but rather, for the happiness in life itself. Painters know this, but this is preciously what they cannot depict. That’s why they substitute the joy of seeing for the joy of life.

Even if you’re not happy” – here, she indicated my brother with her eyes – “even when you’re having your worst day you live your life as if you are. All sorrows fade away when you’re surrounded by your family.

God loves some people more. Those people end up rich. He loves some people a little less, and those people stay poor. You take a pin and scratch off one of these colored circles, and underneath you’ll find your gift and your fortune.

I think it’s horrible that we Turks are always seen under the aspect of Islam first. I am constantly asked about religion, and almost always with a negative undercurrent that makes me furious.

A city’s intellect ought to be measured not by its scholars, libraries, miniaturists, calligraphers and schools, but by the number of crimes insidiously committed on its dark streets over thousands of years.

If I see my city as beautiful and bewitching, then my life must be so too.

But just like believing in God, falling in love is such a sacred feeling that it leaves you with no room for any other passions.

We’re not stupid! We’re just poor! And we have a right to insist on this distinction.