Attila İlhan
Attilâ İlhan was born in Menemen in İzmir Province, Turkey on 15 June 1925. He received most of his primary education in İzmir. However, because of his father's job, he completed his junior high school education in different cities. Aged 16 and enrolled in İzmir Atatürk High School, he got into trouble for sending a poem by Nazım Hikmet, a famous dissident communist Turkish poet, to a girl he was in love with. He was arrested and taken into custody for three weeks. He was also dismissed from school and jailed for two months. After his imprisonment, İlhan was forbidden from attending any schools in Turkey, thus interrupting his education.
Following a favorable court decision in 1941, he received permission to continue his education again and enrolled in Istanbul Işık High School. During the last year of his high school education, his uncle sent one of his poems to CHP Poetry Competition without telling Attilâ. The poem, Cebbaroğlu Mehemmed, won the second prize among many poems written by famous poets. He graduated from high school in 1942 and enrolled in Istanbul University's law school. However, he left midway through his legal education to pursue his own endeavors and published his first poetry book, Duvar (The Wall).
“-Kur'an'da bir cümle olduğunu biliyor musun? diyorum: "Herkesin kaderini boynuna astık" diye. - Hayır, diyor, ben kaderci değilim, kaderle alışverişim yok. Ben, dünyanın kaderiyim belki. Hiç değilse onunla ilgiliyim. Kur'an'da değil, fakat galiba Tevrat'ta şöyle bir cümle olacak:...ve seni Babil'den öte götüreceğim" İşte benim için bütün mesela bu! Babil'den öte gitmek.”
“Hayatımda ben yokum; başkaları da yok; kise beni ilgilendirmiyor, çünkü: Ben kendi kendimi ilgilendirmiyorum.”
“Delik Deşik kirpi gibisin çocuk her tarafın diken kim elini uzatsa delik deşik üstelik sen de kan içindesin”