The real question is how much suffering we've caused our womenfolk by turning headscarves into symbols - and using women as pawns in a political game.

I very much enjoy reading other writers' diaries, mainly because it makes me ask myself: Are they like you? How do they think?

The silence of snow, thought the man sitting just behind the bus driver.

In the mornings I used to say goodbye to my wife like someone going to work. I'd leave the house, walk around a few blocks, and come back like a person arriving at the office.

Great changes in the direction of peace have often come from people who were no great advocates of peace to begin with.

Nothing changed in my life since I work all the time," Pamuk said then. "I've spent 30 years writing fiction. For the first 10 years I worried about money and no one asked me how much money I made. The second decade I spent money and no one was asking me about that. And I've spent the last 10 years with everyone expecting to hear how I spend the money, which I will not do.

I do not believe in a personal connection to God; that's where it gets transcendental.