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.

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

I certainly see myself more as a craftsman than as an artist.

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

I am proud to be a Turk, and to write in Turkish about Turkey - and to have been translated into about 40 languages. But I don't want to politicize things by dramatizing them.

When two people love each other as we do, no one can come between them, no one," I said, amazed at the words I was uttering without preparation. "Lovers like us, because they know that nothing can destroy their love, even on the worst days, even when they are heedlessly hurting each other in the cruelest , most deceitful ways, still carry in their hearts a consolation that never abandons them." (p.191)

I think it's horrible that we Turks are always seen under the aspect of Islam first. I am constantly asked about religion, and almost always with a negative undercurrent that makes me furious.