My name is red, Orhan Pamuk

"Painting in the new style demands such talent that if you depicted one of the trees in this forest, a man who looked upon that painting could come here, and if he so desired, correctly select that tree from among others.
I thank Allah that I, the humble tree before you have not been drawn with such intent. And not because I fear that if I'd been thus depicted all the dogs in Istanbul would assume I was real tree and piss on me: I don't want to be a tree, I want to be it's meaning."

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

"- Do you let Shekure know how much I love her? he asked excitedly and foolishly.
- Don't you tell her so in your letters?
- Tell me how I might convince her and her father? How might I persuade them?
- By being a good person, I said and walked through the door.
- At this age, it's too late... he said with sincere anguish.
-You've begun to earn a lot of money, Custom Officer Hassan. This makes one a good person... I said and fled."

"Isn't love making the best antidote for love?"

"I was Esther, a woman who went in and out of thousands of homes and was acquainted with hundred of widows; I knew that women who lost their husbands early where spellbound either by defeat and misery or anger and rebellion."

"Seeing a woman's bare face, speaking to her, and witnessing her humanity opens the way to both pangs of lust and deep spiritual pain in us men, and thus the best of all alternative is not to lay eyes on women, especially pretty women, without first being lawfully wed, as our noble faith dictates. The sole remedy for carnal desires is to seek out the friendship of beautiful boys, a satisfactory surrogate for females, and in due time, this, too, becomes a habit. In the cities of the European Franks, women roam about exposing not only their faces, but also their brightly shining hair (after their necks, their most attractive feature), their arms, their beautiful throats, and even, if what I've heard is true, a portion of their gorgeous legs; as a result, men of those cities walk about with great difficulty, embarrassed and in extreme pain, because, you see, their front sides are always erect and this fact naturally leads to the paralysis of the entire society. Undoubtedly, this is why each day the Frank infidel surrenders another fortress to us Ottomans."