617 Quotes by Orhan Pamuk

The truth is contentment. Love and marriage are but a means to obtaining it.

The sea was as dark as dreams and as deep as sleep.

I was trying to think of something to say that would sound more meaningful, but when you get down to it, words aren’t very useful at baring our souls, they’re just something else to hide behind.

Oscar Wilde always makes me smile – with respect and admiration. His short stories prove that it is possible to be both sarcastic, even cynical, but deeply compassionate. Just seeing the cover of one of Wildes books in a bookshop makes me smile.

Actually, it’s the other way round. In a poor country, the only consolation people can have is the one that comes from their beliefs.

I work seven days a week, from 9 in the morning till 8 at night. I have the titles of the next eight novels I want to write. I feel myself pitiable, degraded on a day that I don’t write.

My childhood proved to me that there could be no enjoyment of football without community. But it becomes difficult when this community is having problems with its identity. That’s when we experience all possible forms of nationalist exaggeration.

After all, isn’t the purpose of the novel, or of a museum, for that matter, to relate our memories with such sincerity as to transform individual happiness into a happiness all can share?

And it enjoyed one other distinction: The Hilton had been, since the day it opened, one of the few civilized establishments in Turkey where a well-heeled gentleman and a courageous lady could obtain a room without being asked for a marriage certificate.