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

Many great authors of the 19th century wrote under conditions of strict censorship. The great thing about the art of writing a novel, is that you can write about anything. All you have to say is that it's fiction.

Painting taught literature to describe.

There's been quite a clear upswing in nationalist sentiments. Everyone is talking about it, in Turkey as well.

My childhood proved to me that there could be no enjoyment of football without community. But it becomes difficult when this community is having problems with its identity. That's when we experience all possible forms of nationalist exaggeration.

I see Turkey's future as being in Europe, as one of many prosperous, tolerant, democratic countries.

Time had not faded my memories (as I had prayed to God it might), nor had it healed my wounds as it is said always to do. I began each day with the hope that the next day would be better, my recollections a little less pointed, but I would awake to the same pain, as if a black lamp were burning eternally inside me, radiating darkness.