Real filth is the one inside. The rest simply washes off. There is only one type of dirt that cannot be cleansed with pure waters, and that is the stain of hatred and bigotry contaminating the soul. You can purify your body through abstinence and fasting, but only love will purify your heart.
Elif SafakYou see, unlike in the movies, there is no THE END sign flashing at the end of books. When I've read a book, I don't feel like I've finished anything. So I start a new one.
Elif SafakOne thing that has helped me personally in the past was to stop interfering with the people around me and getting frustrated when I couldnโt change them. Instead of intrusion and passivity, may I suggest submission? Some people make the mistake of confusing โsubmissionโ with โweaknessโ, whereas it is anything but. Submission is a form of peaceful acceptance of the terms of the universe, including the things we are currently unable to change or comprehend.
Elif SafakWe're stuck. We're stuck between the East and the West. Between the past and the future. On the one hand there are the secular modernists, so proud of the regime they constructed, you cannot breathe a critical word. They've got the army and half of the state on their side. On the other hand there are the conventional traditionalist, so infatuated with the Ottoman past, you cannot breathe a critical word. They've got the general public and the remaining half of the state on their side.
Elif SafakWe cannot abandon this rabbit hole for fear of a traumatic encounter with our own culture.
Elif Safak