ENGLISH 492
ADVANCED FICTION WRITING
THE UNIVERSITY OF IDAHO
MATERIALS ON ELECTRONIC RESERVE
"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. I write because I can't
do normal work as other people do. I write because I want to read books like the
ones I write. I write because I am angry at everyone. I write because I love
sitting in a room all day writing. I write because I can partake of real life
only by changing it. I write because I want others, the whole world, to know
what sort of life we lived, and continue to live, in Istanbul, in Turkey. I
write because I love the smell of paper, pen, and ink. I write because I believe
in literature, in the art of the novel, more than I believe in anything else. I
write because it is a habit, a passion. I write because I am afraid of being
forgotten. I write because I like the glory and interest that writing brings. I
write to be alone. Perhaps I write because I hope to understand why I am so
very, very angry at everyone. I write because I like to be read. I write because
once I have begun a novel, an essay, a page I want to finish it. I write because
everyone expects me to write. I write because I have a childish belief in the
immortality of libraries, and in the way my books sit on the shelf. I write
because it is exciting to turn all life's beauties and riches into words. I
write not to tell a story but to compose a story. I write because I wish to
escape from the foreboding that there is a place I must go but—as in a
dream—can't quite get to. I write because I have never managed to be happy. I
write to be happy." --Orhan Pamuk, Nobel Lecture 2006