The real choice we have to make is between peace and nationalism.

It is not my intention to explain Turkey, its culture and its problems. My literature has a universal concern: I want to bring people and their emotions closer to my readers, not explain Turkish politics.

Whatever anybody says, the most important thing in life is to be happy.

...a nation could change its way of life, its history, its technology, its art, literature, and culture, but it would never have a real chance to change its gestures.

...the endless repetition of an ordinary miracle.

The snow reminded me of the beauty and mystery of creation, of the essential joy that is life.

I realized that the longing for art, like the longing for love, is a malady that blinds us, and makes us forget the things we already know, obscuring reality.