Censorship should never be allowed. One should be able to say anything. But I refuse to let politics be foisted on me.

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

A writer in someone who spends years patiently trying to discover the second being inside him, and the world that makes him who he is.

I don't read newspapers in the morning. I take a look at the dailies in the afternoon, but only when I've finished my work for the day. Reading about what is happening in Turkey once again would only be demoralizing for me.

Actually, it's the other way round. In a poor country, the only consolation people can have is the one that comes from their beliefs.

In actuality, we don't look for smiles in pictures of bliss, but rather, for the happiness in life itself. Painters know this, but this is preciously what they cannot depict. That's why they substitute the joy of seeing for the joy of life.

Turks have a dismissive phrase: he works like a clerk. I have turned this insult around: I am proud to say that I work like a clerk.