Elif Safak
Elif Safak
Elif Şafakis a Turkish author, columnist, speaker and academic...
NationalityTurkish
ProfessionAuthor
CountryTurkey
summer children firefly
The child had indeed shut up but all the questions that had accumulated on his tongue circulated in his mouth, moved through the passages of his nose and climbed up from there to tickle into his teardrop ducts, so in his moss green pupils, curious, insistent, accusing sparks of questions continued to light up and fade away like fireflies flitting about on summer nights.
children past breathe
The past lives within the present, and our ancestors breathe through our children.
world roaming misery
What is the point of roaming the world when it's the same misery everywhere?
spiritual heart cities
Cities are erected on spiritual columns. Like giant mirrors, they reflect the hearts of their residents. If those hearts darken and lose faith, cities will lose their glamour.
languages love
I love commuting between languages just like I love commuting between cultures and cities.
families grow perhaps raised single
I find families intriguing, perhaps because I did not grow up in one. I was raised by a feminist, independent, single mother, a divorcee.
childhood entire observing spent
I spent my entire childhood observing people. I still do.
connected god stories
For me, writing stories is one way of feeling connected to the universe and God.
across biggest connect create gender god religious
God is the biggest storyteller, and when we create stories, we connect with him and with each other across cultural, religious and gender boundaries.
bit element food humour introduce turkish
I write with humour about sadness, to introduce an element of sweet to the sour, a bit like Turkish food.
above chaotic characters demand intuition placing process pulling puppeteer rather resist
I write as if I were drunk. It is a process of intuition rather than placing myself above my story like a puppeteer pulling strings. For me, it's a scary, chaotic process over which I have little control. Words demand other words, characters resist me.