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 imag….

The silence of snow, thought the man sitting just behind the bus driver..

Mankind's greatest error, the biggest deception of the past thousand years is this: to confuse poverty with stupidity..

Hüzün does not just paralyze the inhabitants of Instanbul, it also gives them poetic license to be paralyzed..

When two people love each other as we do, no one can come between them, no one," I said, amazed at the words I was uttering without preparation. "Lov….

Listen to me: Life is not about principles; it`s about happiness.` `But if you don`t have any principles, and if you don`t have faith, you can`t be h….

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 hap….

How much can we ever know about the love and pain in another's heart? How much can we hope to understand those who have suffered deeper anguish, grea….

My diary has its own kind of magic. It gives me the feeling of having accomplished something. On days when I don't have time for this, I feel torture….

The thing that binds us together is that we have both lowered our expectations of life.

It's such a shame that we know so little about our own country, that we can't find it in our hearts to love our own kind. Instead we admire those who….

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

Turkish football serves the cause of nationalism, but not of the nation..

I sometimes joke that I am the first writer of historical fiction who can look out his window and point to the objects in his novels. I have a view o….

Enjoyment of football is part of the social context, and I have lost my faith in this social context..

Istanbul is a vast place. There are very conservative neighbourhoods, there are places that are upper class, Westernised, consuming Western culture..

As much as I live I shall not imitate them or hate myself for being different to them.

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

Turks have a dismissive phrase: he works like a clerk. I have turned this insult around: I am proud to say that I work like a clerk..

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 emoti….

What was the difference between love and the agony of waiting? Like love, the agony of waiting began in the muscles and somewhere around the upper be….