Ahead of the 2008 Frankfurt Book Fair in October with Turkey as the Guest of Honour, Nobel Prize winning author Orhan Pamuk spoke to Rainer Traube about his latest book and unwanted political attention
Rainer Traube- It seems as though you're trying to find a balance in your life between living in Istanbul and traveling, between being a political person and being an artist?
Orhan Pamuk: Yes, I have to do that. I'm not an exile for example, and they try to pigeonhole me as an exile. "No," I say, "I'm not an exile." I go outside of Turkey by myself, if I want I can live here 365 days a year if I enjoy it.
Living in New York during the semesters that I stay there and traveling is a nice thing, but I don't want to undermine and make a victim of myself. One reason perhaps is that I come from a culture that was never colonized and never victimized. I don't enjoy representing myself as a victim of international powers, nor the victim of a Turkish state. I am on my feet, happy, living, enjoying writing books, and so on. That is how I look at my life.
Full interview at qantara.de
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