My Father's Suitcase...II

By ORHAN PAMUK

"...for me, to be a writer is to acknowledge the secret wounds that we carry inside us, wounds so secret that we ourselves barely aware of them, and to patiently explore them, know them, illuminate them, own them, and make them a conscious part of our spirit and our writing.
A writer talks of things that we all know but do not know that we know. To explore this knowledge, and to watch it grow, is a pleasurable thing; the reader visits a world that is at once familiar and miraculous. When a writer uses his secret wounds as his starting point, he is, whether he is aware of it or not, putting great faith in humanity. My confidence comes from the belief that all human beings resemble one another, that others carry wounds like mine-and that they will therefore understand. All true literature rises from this childish, hopeful certanity that we resemble one another. When a writer shuts himself up in a room for years on end, with this gesture he suggests a single humanity, a world without center..."