SOURCE: Pamuk, Orhan, and Michael Skafidas. “Turkey's Divided Character.” New Perspectives Quarterly 17, no. 2 (spring 2000): 20-2.

In the following interview, Pamuk discusses issues of Turkish identity, the critical reception of his novels in Turkey and abroad, and modern Turkish politics.

Orhan Pamuk is perhaps Turkey's leading contemporary writer. His best-selling novels include The White Castle and The Black Book. His most recent book, The New Life, is just out. Michael Skafidas, editor of the Greek edition of NPQ, spoke to Pamuk recently in Istanbul where he lives and works in a beautiful apartment overlooking the Bosporus.

[Skafidas]: Your books have always reflected the reality of a divided culture. Today more than ever Turkey's two faces—Islam and secularism, East and West—are at war. Would you say that the very essence of your work has been about this huge, invisible wall that divides modern Turkey?

[Pamuk]: Yes, I think...