Elif Shafak

“Tell me, if you teach someone the alphabet, how can you stop him from reading? When one has tasted the elixir of love, how can she not thirst for it? Once you have seen yourself through your beloved's eyes, you're not the same person any longer. I was blind all this time, and now that my eyes are open, i'm afraid of light. But i don't want to live like a mole. Not anymore.”

“What is the point of roaming the world when it's the same misery everywhere?”

“Rebelliousness is not a good quality in a novice.”

“One thing that has helped me personally in the past was to stop interfering with the people around me and getting frustrated when I couldn’t change them. Instead of intrusion and passivity, may I suggest submission?Some people make the mistake of confusing “submission” with “weakness”, whereas it is anything but. Submission is a form of peaceful acceptance of the terms of the universe, including the things we are currently unable to change or comprehend.”

“Hazmedememişti İskender bu ihaneti. Sevip de kandırmayı. İnsanın canı kadar sevdiği birini oyuna getirebileceği aklının ucundan dahi geçmemişti. O güne dek bilmezdi, birine bütün kalbinle muhabbet besleyip yine de onu incitmek istemenin mümkün olabileceğini.Sevginin ve aşkın karmakarışık halleri üzerine aldığı ilk hayat dersiydi bu.”

“Başkalarından saygı, ilgi ya da sevgi bekliyorsan, önce sırasıyla kendine borçlusun bunları. Kendini sevmeyen birinin sevilmesi mümkün değildir. Sen kendini sevdiğin halde dünya sana diken yolladı mı, sevin. Yakında gül yollayacak demektir.”

“Sistemin dışında kalırsan içeride anlamlı bir değişiklik yapabilmenin mümkün olmadığını öğrendi. Ancak sistemin bir parçası haline gelmek de insanın ruhunu yok ederdi. Söyle bakalım, bir şeyin içindeyken dışında durmayı nasıl başarırsın ufaklık?”

“Kadınlar ikiye ayrılır, derdi. Bariz biçimde karmaşık olanlar ile karmaşık olduğu ilk bakışta anlaşılmayanlar.”

“İnsan ömrü kısaydı, bir kurtçuğunkinden farksız. Ya da ipekböceğininkinden. Ademoğulları, Havvakızları tuhaf mahluklardı. Kurtçuğa benzetsen alınır, ipekböceğine benzetilmekten keyif duyarlardı. Böceklerden iğrenir ama parmaklarına uğurböceği konsa hayra alamet sayarlardı. Sıçanlardan tiksinir, sincaplara bayılırlardı. Akbabaları itici, kartalları heybetli bulurlardı. Sinekleri hor görür, ateşböceklerine bayılırlardı. Bakır ve demire ehemmiyet vermez, altına taparlardı. Ayaklarının altındaki taşlara dönüp bakmazken mücevherler için delirirlerdi.”

“Neredeyse safak vaktiydi, geceyle gunduz arasindaki o tekinsiz esige ramak kala. Hala mumkun avuntu bulmak ruyalarda ama onlari silbastan insa etmek icin artik cok gec.”

“Derya icre yuzup de deryayi kavrayamayan baliklar gibiydiler, ortamin bir parcasi halini almislardi.”

“Od nje je naučio dvije osnovne stvari o ljubavi: prvo, da je, za razliku od onoga što romantici tako naduto tvrde, ljubav više postupan tijek nego iznenadni procvat na prvi pogled, i drugo, da je on sposoban voljeti.”

“While the parts change, the whole always remains the same. For every thief who departs this world, a new one is born. And every decent person who passes away is replaced by a new one. In this way not only does nothing remain the same but also nothing ever really changes.”

“Where there is love, there is bound to be heartache.”

“We cannot abandon this rabbit hole for fear of a traumatic encounter with our own culture.”

“The past lives within the present, and our ancestors breathe through our children.”

“Stop running after the waves. Let the sea come to you.”

“But let us not forget that cities are like human beings. They are born, they go through childhood and adolescence, they grow old, and eventually they die”

“Isn't connecting people to distant lands and culture one of the strengths of good literature?”

“Whatever happens in your life, no matter how troubling things might seem, do not enter the neighbourhood of despair.Even when all doors remain closed, God wil open up a new path only for you. Be thankful! It is easy to be thankful when all is well. A Sufi is thankful not only for what he has been given but also for all that has been denied.”

“Aşkı aramadan evvel düşün bir,ya benden nasıl bir aşık olur?İnsanın sevdası karakterinin yansımasıdır.Sen kavgacı isen, ha bire öfkeli, aşkı da bir cenk gibi yaşarsın.Gönlü pak olanın sevgisi de saf olur.”

“I see what you mean. It must be a huge relief, and an easy way out, to think the devil is always outside of us. (…) we would stop looking for Sheitan outside and instead focus on ourselves. What we need is sincere self-examination. Not being on the watch for the faults of others.” (p. 257).”

“It is so demanding to be born into a house full of women, where everyone loves you so overwhelmingly that they end up suffocating with their love; a house where you, as the only child, have to be more mature than all the adults around....But the problem is that they want me to become everything they themselves couldn't accomplish in life.....As a result, I had to work my butt off to fulfill all their dreams at the same time.”

“The Iron Rule of prudence for an Istanbulite Woman: If you are as fragile as a tea glass, either find a way to never encounter burning water and hope to marry an ideal husband or get yourself laid and broken as soon as possible. Alternatively, stop being a tea-glass woman!”

“Aşık olmak sevgilinin isimlerini kendine mal etmektir, aşkın bitmesi ise isimlerin iadesi. İsimler insanların varoluş kalelerine uzanan köprülerdir. Onlar vasıtasıyla başkaları, hem dostlar hem de düşmanlar parmak ucunda içeri girmenin bir yolunu bulurlar. Birinin adını öğrenmek varoluşunun yarısını ele geçirmektir, gerisi parçalar ve ayrıntılardan ibarettir. Çocuklar bunu ruhlarının derinliklerinde bilirler. Bir yabancı isimlerini sorduğunda içgüdüsel olarak söylemeyi reddetmeleri bundandır. Çocuklar isimlerin gücünü idrak eder ama büyüdüklerinde unutuverirler.”

“The world does not move through time as if it were a straight line, proceeding from the past to the future. Instead time moves through and within us, in endless spirals. Eternity does not mean infinite time, but simply timelessness.”

“The words that come out of our mouths do not vanish but are perpetually stored in infinite space, and they will come back to us in due time.”

“Love cannot be explained, yet it explains all.”

“Hell is in the here and now. So is heaven. Quit worrying about hell or dreaming about heaven, as they are both present inside this very moment. Every time we fall in love, we ascend to heaven. Every time we hate, envy, or fight someone, we tumble straight into the fires of hell.”

“Do not go with the flow. Be the flow.”

“Because time is a drop in the ocean, and you cannot measure off one drop against another to see which one is bigger, which one is smaller.”

“Perhaps this is why lunatics have a harder time dating, not because they are off the wall but because it is hard to find soemone who is willing to date so many people in one person.”

“What i’m saying is, my friends, one ought to be able to let go. If a path does not please us, instead of insisting on going that specific way, of making our selfishness the guide, we ought to forsake. The books we cannot write, the films we cannot shoot, the projects we cannot develop, the jobs we cannot pursue and the people who no longer love us. Being able to let go, at times, is the most beautiful of all!”

“No reason to feel depressed about being depressed. A depression can be a golden opportunity to collect the pieces and build ourselves anew. Global Souls are always on the move, nomads at heart, connected to various cities, commuters between cultures, both from here and everywhere.”

“Creativity is contagious. And so is banality. Criticism is an art in itself. Don’t let the dullness around destroy the creativity within. T.S. Eliot said, “honest criticism and sensitive appreciation is directed not upon the poet but upon the poetry.” Good to remember…”

“My interest in Sufism began when I was a college student. At the time, I was a rebellious young woman who liked to wrap several shawls of ‘-isms’ around her shoulders: I was a leftist, feminist, nihilist, environmentalist, anarcho-pacifist…I wasn’t interested in any religion and the difference between ‘religiosity’ and ‘spirituality’ was lost to me. Having spent some time of my childhood with a loving grandmother with many superstitions and beliefs, I had a sense the world was not composed of solely material things and there was more to life than I could see. But the truth is, I wasn’t interested in understanding the world. I only wanted to change it.”

“I like to borrow a metaphor from the great poet and mystic Rumi who talks about living like a drawing compass. One leg of the compass is static. It is fixed and rooted in a certain spot. Meanwhile, the other leg draws a huge wide circle around the first one, constantly moving. Just like that, one part of my writing is based in Istanbul. It has strong local roots. Yet at the same time the other part travels the whole wide world, feeling connected to several cities, cultures, and peoples.”

“One would expect writers and artists to understand one another better than anyone else and to be more appreciative of one another’s works. That, sadly, is not always the case. Writers rarely say anything positive about each other.”

“Yeah, we should all line up along the Bosphorus Bridge and puff as hard as we can to shove this city in the direction of the West. If that doesn't work, we'll try the other way, see if we can veer to the East. It's no good to be in between. International politics does not appreciate ambiguity.”

“We're stuck. We're stuck between the East and the West. Between the past and the future. On the one hand there are the secular modernists, so proud of the regime they constructed, you cannot breathe a critical word. They've got the army and half of the state on their side. On the other hand there are the conventional traditionalist, so infatuated with the Ottoman past, you cannot breathe a critical word. They've got the general public and the remaining half of the state on their side.”

“İnsanın canı kadar sevdiği birini oyuna getirebileceği aklının ucundan dahi geçmemişti. O güne dek bilmezdi, birine bütün kalbinle muhabbet besleyip yine de onu incitmek istemenin mümkün olabileceğini.”

“You see, unlike in the movies, there is no THE END sign flashing at the end of books. When I've read a book, I don't feel like I've finished anything. So I start a new one.”

“..zira biliyordu ki minnettar olunca daha zordu delirmek.”

“Büyüdükçe ve peşinden koştuğu her emeli elinden kaçırdıkça bütün şeylerin geçici olduğunu karar verdi.”

“Bakışıyoruz. Sonunda geldi işte o an. Benden ne kadar nefret ettiğini gösterebilecek.Ben de hislerinin karşılıksız olmadığını.Artık rol yapmaya gerek yok.Olduğumuzdan daha iyiymişiz gibi yapmayacağız artık. Neysek oyuz.”

“İnsan belli bir yaşa gelince kendi hudutları ve hatalarıyla barışmaya başlıyor.”

“Si no le cuentas a nadie lo extraordinario, todo el mundo supone que es normal.”

“I slept peacefully that night, feeling exultant and determined. Little did I know that I was making the most common and the most painful mistake women have made all throughout the ages: to naively think that with their love they can change the man they love.”

“The universe is one being. Everything and everyone is interconnected through an invisible web of stories. Whether we are aware of it or not, we are all in a silent conversation. Do no harm. Practise compassion. And do not gossip behind anyone's back - not even seemingly innocent remark! The words that come out of our mouth do not vanish but are perpetually stored in infinite space, and they will come back to us in due time. One man's pain will hurt us all. One man's joy will make everyone smile.”

“‎"Умът и любовта са от различно тесто. Умът привързва човека и не се излага на никакви опасности, докато любовта разплита всички възли и излага на опасност всичко. Умът винаги е предпазлив и съветва: „Пази се от прекалено въодушевление“, докато любовта казва: „О, карай! Престраши се!“. Умът не се прекършва лесно, докато... любовта може в миг да се превърне в отломъци. Но именно сред развалините са скрити съкровища. Едно разбито сърце крие в себе си несметни богатства" -Елиф Шафак”