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Elif Safak Quotes

Powerful Elif Safak for Daily Growth

About Elif Safak

Elif Şafak (born November 5, 1970) is a renowned Turkish novelist, academic, and activist, known for her works that intertwine Eastern and Western cultures. Raised in Istanbul, she is the only child of two academics who encouraged her intellectual curiosity from an early age. Şafak studied political science at Bob Jones University, a conservative Christian institution in South Carolina, before transferring to Cambridge University, where she completed her master's degree in Social and Political Sciences. Her experiences straddling diverse cultural landscapes significantly influenced her writing, providing her with a unique perspective on the complexities of identity, faith, and women's roles in society. Her first novel, "The Saint of Incipient Insanities" (1994), was followed by "The Gaze" (1999) and "Motherland" (2006). However, it was her third novel, "The Forty Rules of Love" (2008), that catapulted Şafak to international acclaim. The book is a captivating tale of the 13th-century Sufi poet Rumi and a modern-day woman seeking spiritual fulfillment. Şafak's works often explore themes of love, identity, and faith in a global context. Her novels are characterized by their rich language, vivid imagery, and complex characters. In addition to her fiction, she has also published several essays on feminism, Islam, and freedom of speech, earning her the title of "the Turkish PEN's new international spokeswoman" by The Guardian. Şafak continues to write and speak out against censorship and for women's rights. In 2019, she was awarded the Prinzessin von Hannover Preis für die Freiheit der Presse und Medien, recognizing her commitment to freedom of expression. Her latest novel, "The Istanbul Passion" (2020), delves into the lives of four women in modern-day Istanbul, exploring themes of love, friendship, and the struggle for self-discovery amidst societal expectations.

Interpretations of Popular Quotes

"The secret of life is to fall seven times and to get up eight times."

Elif Safak's quote suggests that life is about experiencing setbacks, or falling down, but it's essential to always rise again, demonstrating resilience and determination. This implies that failure is inevitable in life, yet it should not define us; instead, we should learn from our mistakes and move forward with renewed strength. The balance between falling and getting up signifies the ebb and flow of life and the importance of perseverance in overcoming challenges.

"Happiness is never a finished product; it's a journey not a destination."

Elif Safak's quote suggests that true happiness is an ongoing process, not a static state to be achieved and maintained. It implies that the pursuit of happiness should be viewed as a continuous journey rather than a final destination, as our feelings of joy and contentment are dynamic and influenced by various factors throughout life. The implication is that we should embrace each moment along the way and find meaning in experiences, relationships, and personal growth, rather than placing all our focus on an elusive end goal.

"When you're in love, it's like drinking the house of wine. First the sweetness, then the bitterness."

This quote by Elif Safak suggests that the experience of falling in love is a complex mix of emotions. At first, love feels intoxicatingly sweet, filled with joy and passion. However, as time passes, one may also encounter the bitter aspects such as heartache, pain, and conflict, mirroring the transition from the initial sweetness to the subsequent bitterness when drinking wine. Overall, it highlights the dual nature of love: a potent blend of euphoria and suffering.

"The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing."

This quote by Elif Safak emphasizes the importance of humility and open-mindedness in life. It suggests that acknowledging one's own limitations is a form of wisdom, because it encourages continuous learning and growth. By understanding that there's always more to learn, individuals remain curious, adaptable, and receptive to new experiences and perspectives. This mindset fosters empathy, resilience, and overall personal development.

"Home is where your story begins."

This quote by Elif Safak suggests that home is not merely a physical location, but rather a place deeply rooted in personal experiences and memories. It signifies the starting point of one's life journey, the first chapter of their unique story. Home represents comfort, familiarity, and the foundation upon which our individual identities are built. It's where we develop our values, learn our first lessons, and cultivate our dreams. In essence, home is an emotional concept that carries immense significance in shaping who we are as individuals.

I write with humour about sadness, to introduce an element of sweet to the sour, a bit like Turkish food.

- Elif Safak

Like, I Write, About, Introduce

I write my novels in English first; then they are translated into Turkish by professional translators. Then I take their translation and rewrite. So basically, I write the same novel twice.

- Elif Safak

I Write, Then, Translated, Translation

I was in Madrid as a young girl and a teenager. I'll never forget when I went to the Prado Museum for the first time and saw the paintings of Goya. They had such a big impact on me.

- Elif Safak

Young, Big, Young Girl, Madrid

Part of me always felt like the other, the outsider, the observer. My father had two sons with his second wife, who I didn't meet until my late 20s. I was always on the periphery. In Madrid, I was the only Turk in a very international school, so I had to start thinking about identity. All these things affected me.

- Elif Safak

Other, Part, Very, Madrid

My readers are surprisingly mixed. I have conservative readers - for instance, women with headscarves - but also many liberal, leftist, feminist, nihilist, environmentalist, and secularist readers. Next to those are mystics, agnostics, Kurds, Turks, Alevis, Sunnis, gays, housewives, and businesswomen.

- Elif Safak

Conservative, Next, Instance, Surprisingly

It is tiring to be Turkish. The country is badly polarised, bitterly politicized. Every writer, journalist, poet knows that because of an article, a novel, an interview, a poem or a tweet you can be sued, put on trial, even arrested. Self-censorship is widespread.

- Elif Safak

Country, Badly, Arrested, Interview

When societies go backwards and slide into authoritarianism, nationalism, and tribalism, machismo and sexism are also emboldened.

- Elif Safak

Go, Authoritarianism, Also, Slide

We need a dose of doubt and a dose of faith, to challenge each other.

- Elif Safak

Doubt, Need, Other, Dose

Writing is a tribute to solitude. It is choosing introversion over extroversion, lonely hours/days/weeks/years over fun and sociability.

- Elif Safak

Writing, Over, Choosing, Solitude

I realized over the years if I'm writing about humor, irony, satire, I much prefer to do that in English. And if there is sorrow, melancholy, longing, I much prefer to do that in Turkish. Each language has its own strength to me, and I feel connected and attached to both Turkish and English. I dream in more than one language.

- Elif Safak

Strength, Own, Prefer, Melancholy

For me, coming from the women's movement, politics is not just about parties and parliament. There is politics in our private space and in gender relations as well. Wherever there's power, there's politics.

- Elif Safak

Politics, Gender, Private, Relations

If you are a writer from Turkey, Pakistan, Nigeria, Egypt, you don't have the luxury of being apolitical. You can't say, 'That's politics. I'm just doing my work.'

- Elif Safak

Politics, Doing, Nigeria, Apolitical

The lack of trust in supranational entities and cosmopolitan elite creates a fertile ground for tribalist belongings and reactionary politics.

- Elif Safak

Trust, Politics, Lack, Cosmopolitan

I like to question cultural biases wherever I go, and I question Islamophobia as much as I question anti-western sentiment because I think all extremist ideologies are very similar.

- Elif Safak

Think, Very, Sentiment, Extremist

I spent my entire childhood observing people. I still do.

- Elif Safak

Childhood, Still, Spent, Observing

I write as if I were drunk. It is a process of intuition rather than placing myself above my story like a puppeteer pulling strings. For me, it's a scary, chaotic process over which I have little control. Words demand other words, characters resist me.

- Elif Safak

Other, Rather, I Write, Placing

Bad writing is like a bad relationship. Don't be addicted to it just because you are familiar with its ways. Let go.

- Elif Safak

Bad, Like, Addicted, Let Go

I find families intriguing, perhaps because I did not grow up in one. I was raised by a feminist, independent, single mother, a divorcee.

- Elif Safak

Grow, Independent, Raised, Intriguing

Politicians and leaders who see the media as 'the enemy within' divide society into two clashing cultural camps. Populist demagogues benefit from binary oppositions.

- Elif Safak

Enemy, Within, Leaders, Binary

I love commuting between languages just like I love commuting between cultures and cities.

- Elif Safak

Love, Commuting, I Love, Between

With 'The Forty Rules of Love,' I wanted to write a love story. But I wanted a love story with a spiritual dimension. For me, that took me to Rumi. And from Rumi, I went to Shams of Tabriz. That's how the story took shape.

- Elif Safak

Love, Shape, Took, Dimension

Turkey is a complex country. Most readers are women, of all generations, and they are passionate about books. However, the written culture is mostly patriarchal. In general, men write; women read. I would like to see this pattern changing. More women should write novels, poems, plays, and hopefully, more men will read fiction.

- Elif Safak

Country, However, Mostly, Hopefully

There are two different ways of writing a novel. The first I call the traditional father way, when the novelist slightly situates himself or herself above the text and knows what each and every character is going to do. It's a bit like engineering. I've never felt close to that tradition. I like the second way, which relies a bit more on intuition.

- Elif Safak

Father, Slightly, Bit, Herself

The only way to learn writing is by writing. Talent, as charming as it sounds, amounts to no more than 12 per cent of the process. Work is 80 per cent. The remaining 8 per cent is 'luck' or 'zeitgeist' - in short, things that are not in our hands.

- Elif Safak

Luck, Hands, Cent, Per

English, for me, is an acquired language. I started with English at the age of 10. At the time, it was my third language.

- Elif Safak

Me, English, Third, Acquired

Books change us. Books save us. I know this because it happened to me. Books saved me. So, I do believe through stories we can learn to change, we can learn to empathize and be more connected with the universe and with humanity.

- Elif Safak

Saved, Through, Stories, Empathize

God is the biggest storyteller, and when we create stories, we connect with him and with each other across cultural, religious and gender boundaries.

- Elif Safak

Other, Religious, Stories, Connect

For me, writing stories is one way of feeling connected to the universe and God.

- Elif Safak

Writing, Connected, Stories, One Way

If there is no love between the author and the story, there is no love between the reader and the story.

- Elif Safak

Love, Author, Reader, No Love

When I was 10 years old, we moved to Spain with my mother. I learned Spanish before I learned English. But the English language stayed with me.

- Elif Safak

Before, Spanish, Learned, Spain

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