Elif

“Overnight, our neighbors began to look at us differently. Maybe it was the little girl down the road who no longer waved to us from her farmhouse window. Or the longtime customers who suddenly disappeared from our restaurants and stores. Or our mistress, Mrs. Trimble, who pulled us aside one morning as we were mopping her kitchen and whispered into our ear, "Did you know that the war was coming?" Club ladies began boycotting our fruit stands because they were afraid our produce might be tainted with arsenic. Insurance companies canceled our insurance. Banks froze our bank accounts. Milkmen stopped delivering milk to our doors. "Company orders," one tearful milkman explained. Children took one look at us and ran away like frightened deer. Little old ladies clutched their purses and froze up on the sidewalk at the sight of our husbands and shouted out, "They're here!" And even though our husbands had warned us--They're afraid--still, we were unprepared. Suddenly, to find ourselves the enemy.”
― Julie Otsuka, The Buddha in the Attic

“We forgot about Buddha. We forgot about God. We developed a coldness inside us that still has not thawed. I fear my soul has died. We stopped writing home to our mothers. We lost weight and grew thin. We stopped bleeding. We stopped dreaming. We stopped wanting.”
― Julie Otsuka, The Buddha in the Attic

“İstanbul'dan ayrılmak istemiyoruz fakat senede kaç defa kütüphaneye gideriz? üç beş cadde ile bir o kadar da kahveden başka ne biliriz? fikir hayatı, fikir hayatı diyoruz... en kabadayımız bile gevezelikten başka ne konuşuyor? kahve münakaşalarıyla zihnimizi inkişaf ettirdiğimizi sanmakla pek akıllıca bir iş yaptığımıza kani değilim... bizi buraya asıl bağlayan bir alışkanlıktır... biz burada maksatsız yaşamayı ve boş beyinle dolaşmayı tatlı bir meşgale haline getirmek yolunu keşfetmişiz... hepimizi istanbul'a bağlayan sadece bu... burada insan, kafasını zerre kadar işletmeden mütefekkir bir kimse olduğuna inanmak ve buna başkalarını da inandırmak imkanına malik... bu şehrin ve buradaki muhitlerin dayanılmaz cazibesi işte bundan ibaret!...”
― Sabahattin Ali, İçimizdeki Şeytan

“I'd rather be myself," he said. "Myself and nasty. Not somebody else, however jolly.”
― Aldous Huxley, Brave New World