"'Buried Under The Ashes of a Ruined Empire'
Friday, October 13, 2006; Page C02
From 'Istanbul: Memories and the City,' by Orhan Pamuk, translated by Maureen Freely.
Conrad, Nabokov, Naipaul -- these are writers known for having managed to migrate between languages, cultures, countries, continents, even civilizations. Their imaginations were fed by exile, a nourishment drawn not through roots but through rootlessness. My imagination, however, requires that I stay in the same city, on the same street, in the same house, gazing at the same view. Istanbul's fate is my fate. I am attached to this city because it has made me who I am."
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