Quotes from My Name is Red

Orhan Pamuk ·  417 pages

Rating: (35.9K votes)


“I don't want to be a tree; I want to be its meaning.”
― Orhan Pamuk, quote from My Name is Red


“Dogs do speak, but only to those who know how to listen.”
― Orhan Pamuk, quote from My Name is Red


“Painting is the silence of thought and the music of sight.”
― Orhan Pamuk, quote from My Name is Red


“Tell me then, does love make one a fool or do only fools fall in love?”
― Orhan Pamuk, quote from My Name is Red


“Books, which we mistake for consolation, only add depth to our sorrow. ”
― Orhan Pamuk, quote from My Name is Red



“When you love a city and have explored it frequently on foot, your body, not to mention your soul, gets to know the streets so well after a number of years that in a fit of melancholy, perhaps stirred by a light snow falling ever so sorrowfully, you'll discover your legs carrying you of their own accord toward one of your favourite promontories”
― Orhan Pamuk, quote from My Name is Red


“The beauty and mystery of this world only emerges through affection, attention, interest and compassion . . . open your eyes wide and actually see this world by attending to its colors, details and irony.”
― Orhan Pamuk, quote from My Name is Red


“For if a lover's face survives emblazoned on your heart, the world is still your home.”
― Orhan Pamuk, quote from My Name is Red


“I hear the question upon your lips: What is it to be a colour?

Colour is the touch of the eye, music to the deaf, a word out of the darkness. Because I’ve listened to souls whispering – like the susurrus of the wind – from book to book and object to object for tens or thousands of years, allow me to say that my touch resembles the touch of angels. Part of me, the serious half, calls out to your vision while the mirthful half sours through the air with your glances.

I’m so fortunate to be red! I’m fiery. I’m strong. I know men take notice of me and that I cannot be resisted.

I do not conceal myself: For me, delicacy manifests itself neither in weakness nor in subtlety, but through determination and will. So, I draw attention to myself. I’m not afraid of other colours, shadows, crowds or even of loneliness. How wonderful it is to cover a surface that awaits me with my own victorious being! Wherever I’m spread, I see eyes shine, passions increase, eyebrows rise and heartbeats quicken. Behold how wonderful it is to live! Behold how wonderful to see. I am everywhere. Life begins with and returns to me. Have faith in what I tell you.”
― Orhan Pamuk, quote from My Name is Red


“Try to discover who I am from my choice of words and colors, as attentive people like yourselves might examine footprints to catch a thief.”
― Orhan Pamuk, quote from My Name is Red



“Before my birth there was infinite time, and after my death, inexhaustible time. I never thought of it before: I'd been living luminously between two eternities of darkness.”
― Orhan Pamuk, quote from My Name is Red


“A letter doesn't communicate by words alone. A letter, just like a book, can be read by smelling it, touching it and fondling it. Thereby, intelligent folk will say, 'Go on then, read what the letter tells you!' whereas the dull-witted will say, 'Go on then, read what he's written!”
― Orhan Pamuk, quote from My Name is Red


“I am nothing but a corpse now, a body at the bottom of a well. ”
― Orhan Pamuk, quote from My Name is Red


“هل العشق يجعل الإنسان غبيّاً أم أن الأغبياء فقط يعشقون !”
― Orhan Pamuk, quote from My Name is Red


“Colour is the touch of the eye,
Music to the deaf,
A word out of darkness.”
― Orhan Pamuk, quote from My Name is Red



“كان خلفي زمن لا محدود حتّى قبل أن أولد , وبعد أن متّ أيضاً , زمن لا ينتهي !
لم أفكر بهذا وأنا حي .
كنت أعيش وسط ضوء بين زمنين مظلمين .”
― Orhan Pamuk, quote from My Name is Red


“ المهارة ليست بقراءة المكتوب فقط ! ”
― Orhan Pamuk, quote from My Name is Red


“¿Es el amor el que vuelve estúpidas a las personas o es que sólo los estúpidos se enamoran?”
― Orhan Pamuk, quote from My Name is Red


“أنا تعيسة لإني لا أفهم مايقول قلبي”
― Orhan Pamuk, quote from My Name is Red


“ ثمّة لحظات تمُر في حياتنا جميعاً نُدرك عند حدوثها أننا سنقضي فترة طويلة جداً دون أن ننساها ”
― Orhan Pamuk, quote from My Name is Red



“الشعرُ شقيق الرسم ، و اللون شقيق الكلمة .”
― Orhan Pamuk, quote from My Name is Red


“Let me first state forthright that contrary to what we've often read in books and heard from preachers, when you are a woman, you don't feel like the Devil. ”
― Orhan Pamuk, quote from My Name is Red


“...The beauty and mystery of this world only emerges through affection, attention, interest and compassion; if you want to live in the paradise where happy mares and stallion live, open your eyes wide and actually see this world by attending to its colors, details and irony.”
― Orhan Pamuk, quote from My Name is Red


“...it seemed to me that the entire world was like a palace with countless rooms whose doors opened into one another. We were able to pass from one room to the next only by exercising out memories and imaginations, but most of us, in our laziness, rarely exercised these capacities, and forever remained in the same room”
― Orhan Pamuk, quote from My Name is Red


“الموت ليس نهاية كل شيء , وهذا مؤكد , ولكنه مؤلم إلى حدّ لا يمكن تصوّره , وتحمّل هذا الألم غير المحدود صعب إلى حدّ أن جزءاً من عقلي يرى مخرجه الوحيد نسيان هذا الأمر والإندفاع بقوة نحو نوم هانئ .”
― Orhan Pamuk, quote from My Name is Red



“شعرت بدفء في داخلي و أنا أعمل , كما شعرت أنني من عباد الله الصالحين . ثمّ دعوت إلى الله مطوّلاً لكي لا يحرمني شعور الصلاح هذا .”
― Orhan Pamuk, quote from My Name is Red


“Are you an angel that approaching you should be so terrifying?”
― Orhan Pamuk, quote from My Name is Red


“قبلا فکر میکردم که اگه دو نفر به هم همیشه راست بگن ،یعنی عین حقیقت رو بگن،باید خیلی باهم صمیمی باشن ولی الآن دیدم که انگار باید برای حفظ صمیمیت، بعضی جاها دروغ هم بگی”
― Orhan Pamuk, quote from My Name is Red


“لعلّهم اعتادوا . ما أسوأ هذا !
لإن الإنسان وهو ميّت يشعر بإن الحياة التي تركها خلفه تسير كما تركها , وكما كانت في الماضي.”
― Orhan Pamuk, quote from My Name is Red


“عندما بكيتُ شعرتُ أنني امرأة أخرى انفصلت عني، وأرى حياتي من الخارج وأبكي متألمة على حياتي كما يبكي قارئ وهو يقلب صفحات كتاب ويرى رسوما مؤلمة.”
― Orhan Pamuk, quote from My Name is Red



About the author

Orhan Pamuk
Born place: in Istanbul, Turkey
Born date June 7, 1952
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