Orhan Pamuk

Turkish novelist, academic and Nobel laureate (born 1952)

Fame77.9
Momentum20.0
Turkey rank#11

Claim profile

Source-basedFalling

Fame77.9
Momentum20.0
Turkey rank#11
Writers rank#114
Wikipedia37.7K

Born 1952 · age 74Turkey

Turkey WritersWriter / Author

Verify ownership in 2 minutes. Keeps the profile accurate and discoverable.

Wikipedia
114 languages
Cross-language footprint
Rank in Turkey
#11
Writers
Age
74
Born 1952
Known for
Bosch: The Garden of D…
2016

Summary

Updated 2026-06-21

Turkey's best-selling novelist — 13 million books in 63 languages — and the country's first Nobel laureate. His willingness to write about contentious history once landed him in court for acknowledging the Armenian genocide.

Biography

About

Born in Istanbul on 7 June 1952, Orhan Pamuk built a body of work that includes The White Castle, The Black Book, My Name Is Red, and Snow. My Name Is Red swept major prizes: the 2002 Prix du Meilleur Livre Étranger, the 2002 Premio Grinzane Cavour, and the 2003 International Dublin Literary Award. He won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2006. That same willingness to address Turkey's contentious past — he publicly acknowledged the Armenian genocide in the Ottoman Empire — drew a lawsuit in 2005; the case was initially dismissed, but in 2011 he was ordered to pay 6,000 liras for insulting hono…

Voice

In their own words

Sourced, dated quotes from Orhan Pamuk

Orhan Pamuk

said7 Dec 2006

The question we writers are asked most often, the favorite question, is: Why do you write? I write because I have an innate need to write.

— My Father's Suitcase", Nobel Prize for Literature lecture (December 7, 2006)

Orhan Pamuk

said8 May 2006

When another writer in another house is not free, no writer is free.

— "Freedom to Write", Prague Writer's Festival (May 8, 2006)

Orhan Pamuk

said1998

I am nothing but a corpse now, a body at the bottom of a well.

— I Am a Corpse (p. 3)

Orhan Pamuk

said1998

Before my birth there was infinite time, and after my death, inexhaustible time. I never thought of it before: I'd been living luminously between two eternities of darkness.

— I Am a Corpse (p. 3)

Orhan Pamuk

said1998