Tuesday, January 15, 2008

quotes from "my name is red" by orhan pamuk

i could not describe red any better:
"My dear master, explain red to somebody who has never known red."

"If we touched it with the tip of a finger, it would feel like something between iron and copper. If we took it into our palm, it would burn. if we tasted it, it would be full-bodied, like salted meat. If we took it between our lips, it would fill our mouths. If we smelled it, it'd have the scent of a horse. If it were a flower, it would smell like a daisy, not a red rose."

here's a description of a picture a character stumbles upon while examining a book:
"the capture and hanging of a decitful shepherd dog who presents a sheep from his flock to the she-wolf he mates with each night"

on seeing, memory and painting:
"To know is to remember that you've seen. To see is to know without remembering. Thus, painting is remembering the blackness."

1 comment:

Lara said...

I am only one page 61, but I was already struck by this line:

"I don't want to be a tree, I want to be its meaning." -- stated by a painting of a tree

I also particularly like the statement "Painting is the silence of thought and the music of sight."

This book is full of elegant turns of line!

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