For the traveler we see leaning on his neighbor is an honest and well-meaning man and full of melancholy, like those Chekhov characters so laden with virtues that they never know success in life.

It's a great relief for me that no one will ask me anymore: "Orhan, when will you get the Nobel Prize?"

Yet does illustrating in a new way signify a new way of seeing?

When something explosive is kept hidden away, a tension builds within that must ultimately be released.

I really don't want to portray the Islamists as simply evil, the way it's often done in the west.

National consciousness is truly a miraculous thing. When I am not in Turkey I feel even more Turkish than in Istanbul. But when I'm home my European side becomes more apparent.

Books, which we mistake for consolation, only add depth to our sorrow.