10 Extraordinary Phrases From Orhan Pamuk

Orhan Pamuk’s phrases are those kinds of sentences that echo and are remembered long after they have been read for the first time. This Turkish writer, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2006, has surprised everyone with his unique way of understanding the world.

Although this wonderful novelist began studies in architecture, he eventually abandoned them and devoted himself entirely to literature. In fact, he had to face opposition from his family, who saw no future for that job. His strong and independent character is reflected in many of his phrases. 

Pamuk says that the novel is a way of understanding life. His work The Astrologer and the Sultan was praised across the globe for the sincerity and depth of its content. Although the ideal is to read the complete texts, in several sentences of Orhan Pamuk it is possible to glimpse the genius and vitality of his work. These are some of them.

Love, a theme in the phrases of Orhan Pamuk

As is often the case with great writers, love is one of the recurring themes in Orhan Pamuk’s phrases and, of course, throughout his work. He has a very moving, yet realistic view of that feeling. An excerpt from one of his novels reads as follows: “ Love is the desire to hug a person tightly and be in the same place as her. The desire to embrace her leaving the whole world out. The nostalgia of the soul to find a safe haven ”.

Despite a certain skepticism that prevails in much of his writing, Pamuk is also a writer who believes in love. Who believes in its redemption glow. This is how he shows it in the following passage: “ Then we would go to a cafe to read the book again and we would talk about it non-stop, non-stop for hours. That was love and sometimes I thought that, like in the movies , love was the only way to bring a distant universe to our own ”.

The time and the moments

One of Orhan Pamuk’s phrases goes like this: “ Clocks and calendars are made to regulate our relationships with others; actually, to regulate the entire society, and that’s how they are used ”. It means that the measurement of time is a human construction and that in the action of sharing moments and making them measurable there is a backdrop: the desire for control. Regulating time is regulating life, but these measures are above the subject. They are an imposition of power.

Time can be measured, regulated, imposed, but still it still has an aura of mystery. No matter how controlled everything is, time is always a background uncertainty. This can be seen in another of Orhan Pamuk’s phrases: ” Nobody really knows that he is living the happiest moment of his life while living it .” The meaning of each moment is given later, not when you are living.

The happiness

Regarding the concept of happiness, this Turkish writer is not exactly credulous. What he says about it is, more or less, that it is a construction of fiction or a reality that is accessed when consciousness is absent. That is what one of Orhan Pamuk’s phrases reveals: ” Some time later, either happiness vulgarises the poet and poetry, or authentic poetry makes happiness impossible .”

Something similar is captured in one of the fragments of his work. It goes like this: “ Every intelligent person knows that life is beautiful and that its goal is for us to be happy, ” my father commented , observing the three beauties . But then only fools are happy. How to explain it? With this text, he confirms the idea that happiness is an imaginary construction and that it is only accessed when intelligence is not present.

The world and its injustices

In one of his novels, Orhan Pamuk writes this beautiful text: ” Children were the first victims of the immorality brought about by the collapse of great civilizations and the collapse of memories .” In these statements he associates the lack of morality with the absence of memory. The corrosion of civilization with the same immorality. And it points out that those who wake up the world are the main depositories of that decadence.

In the face of injustice, Pamuk points out: “ In all parts of the world there are injustices and bad people! The important thing is to be able to live in a way that protects the natural goodness of man ”. In his view, the way of life is the one that allows us to protect good feelings, which are natural in the human being. The task would be to not allow ourselves to stray from our true nature.

There is still hope

Despite its realism, sometimes gray and with a tinge of disappointment, Pamuk has in its collection many reflections that aim to highlight the most beautiful things in life. One of his novels includes, for example, this phrase: ” Once you feel a confidence like this inside you, you do the first thing that comes to mind and what your heart dictates and everything works out .” Talk about that kind of belief in yourself that when it emerges, it makes everything possible.

Another of his phrases is simple and forceful. He says: ” One day I read a book and my whole life changed .” It is very significant that you say so. It is also hopeful that it gives literature that role that it has always had, but that at times is lost: teaching us to live.

In this short selection of phrases by Orhan Pamuk, the greatness of his work can be glimpsed. It has been translated into more than 20 languages ​​and although it deals with local issues many times, it has acquired a universal stature.