Orhan Pamuk

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

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

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

How much can we ever know about the love and pain in another heart? How much can we hope to understand those who have suffered deeper anguish, greater deprivation, and more crushing disappointments than we ourselves have known?

The first thing I learned at school was that some people are idiots; the second thing I learned was that some are even worse.

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

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

Painting is the silence of thought and the music of sight.

My unhappiness protects me from life.

Real museums are places where Time is transformed into Space.

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?

For if a lover's face survives emblazoned on your heart, the world is still your home.