Orhan Pamuk
Orhan Pamuk
Ferit Orhan Pamukis a Turkish novelist, screenwriter, academic and recipient of the 2006 Nobel Prize in Literature. One of Turkey's most prominent novelists, his work has sold over thirteen million books in sixty-three languages, making him the country's best-selling writer...
ProfessionNovelist
Date of Birth7 June 1952
CityIstanbul, Turkey
captive either future hand happier lives name remember tells unhappy wrote
I wrote 'My Name is Red' just to remember painting, where the hand does it before the intellect. When I'm captive to it, I'm a happier person. Kierkegaard tells us that a happy person is someone who lives in the present; the unhappy person, someone who lives either in the past or the future.
bourgeois leaders museum name popular secular trying understand united
'Snow' is my most popular book in the United States. But in Turkey, it was not as popular as 'My Name is Red,' or even 'The Museum of Innocence,' because the secular leaders didn't want this bourgeois Orhan trying to understand these head-scarf girls.
books huge islamic modern work
The fictive structure, my work, my imagination, my books are about the details, the huge construction about culture, Islamic culture or modern Turkey. They're all intertwined.
close istanbul power respect rural whether
I don't much care whether rural Anatolians or Istanbul secularists take power. I'm not close to any of them. What I care about is respect for the individual.
focusing novels telling western
I had the feeling that focusing on objects and telling a story through them would make my protagonists different from those in Western novels - more real, more quintessentially of Istanbul.
convincing details earlier fantasies life man reality
Idealism, unrealistic idealism, is always contrasted with the reality of the people, of the man in the street. The details of daily life are always more convincing than the political fantasies of the earlier generations.
accurately authority gives identify imitate novels people singular
Novels are political because in them, we try to identify with people who are not like us. And, in that sense, I like the first-person singular because I have to imitate accurately the voice of someone who is not like me. The third-person singular gives me an authority over a character.
age convey less life understanding
At the age of 60, I am less experimental and more mature. I want most of all to convey my understanding of life.
people politics
I think less than people think I do about politics. I care about writing.
american-novelist book conception experience god
The hero of the book does long to experience God. But his conception of God is very western.
attacked novels turkey
I have been attacked in Turkey more for my interviews than for my books. Political polemicists and columnists do not read novels there.
except life sole
Nothing can be as astounding as life. Except for writing. Yes, of course, except for writing, the sole consolation.
authors fading previous publishing welcomed
When I was publishing my first books, the previous generation of authors was fading away, so I was welcomed because I was a new author.
continue imagination issues pursue turkey
Authoritarianism, an unrealistic occidental imagination - these issues will never be settled. Turkey will continue to take Europe as a model; it will continue to pursue its search for democracy.