Elif Safak
Elif Safak
Elif Şafakis a Turkish author, columnist, speaker and academic...
NationalityTurkish
ProfessionAuthor
CountryTurkey
space mouths infinite
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.
children father ocean
Father, I am from a different egg than your other children. Think of me as a duckling raised by hens. I am not a domestic bird destined to spend his life in a chicken coop. the water that scares you rejuvenates me. For unlike you I can swim, and swim I shall. The ocean is my homeland. If you are with me, come to the ocean. If not, stop interfering with me and go back to the chicken coop.
ocean drops-in-the-ocean bigger
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.
land people literature
Isn't connecting people to distant lands and culture one of the strengths of good literature?
cities childhood forget
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
humanity saint
A saint belongs to all humanity.
identity-politics water fiction
Identity politics divides us; fiction connects. One is interested in sweeping generalizations, the other in nuances. One draws boundaries, the other recognizes no frontiers. Identity politics is made of solid bricks; fiction is flowing water.
running sea wave
Stop running after the waves. Let the sea come to you.
mind like-her speak
perhaps it took a stranger to make a woman like her speak her mind.
art practice becoming
Article Five: If you have no reason or ability to accomplish anything, then just practice the art of becoming.
giving ignorant bears
Either grant me the bliss of the ignorant or give me the strength to bear the knowledge.
mirrors believer
Believers are each other's mirrors.
rabbits culture rabbit-holes
We cannot abandon this rabbit hole for fear of a traumatic encounter with our own culture.
book ends feels
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.