Orhan Pamuk Quotes: 11

• I consider myself Istanbul's storyteller. My subject matter is my town. I consider it my job to explore the hidden patterns of my city's clandestine corners, its shady, mysterious places, the things I love.

• I read a book one day and my whole life was changed.

  The New Life

• Happiness is holding someone in your arms and knowing you hold the whole world.

  Snow

• I don't want to be a tree; I want to be its meaning.

  My Name is Red

• Tell me then, does love make one a fool or do only fools fall in love?

  My Name is Red

• Books, which we mistake for consolation, only add depth to our sorrow.

  My Name is Red

• Any intelligent person knows that life is a beautiful thing and that the purpose of life is to be happy,"said my father as he watched the three beauties. "But it seems only idiots are ever happy. How can we explain this?

  The Museum of Innocence

• Sometimes I sensed that the books I read in rapid succession had set up some sort of murmur among themselves, transforming my head into an orchestra pit where different musical instruments sounded out, and I would realize that I could endure this life because of these musicales going on in my head.

  The New Life

• There's a lot of pride involved in my refusal to believe in god.

  Snow

• Most of the time it's not the Europeans who belittle us. What happens when we look at them is that we belittle ourselves. When we undertake the pilgrimage, it's not just to escape the tyranny at home but also to reach to the depths of our souls. The day arrives when the guilty must return to save those who could not find the courage to leave.

  Snow

• The greatest happiness is when the eye discovers beauty where neither then mind conceived of nor the hand intended any.

  The Innocence of Objects