Every book is a journey, a map into the complexities of the human mind and soul.

— Elif Shafak

Every true love and friendship is a story of unexpected transformation. If we are the same person before and after we loved, that means we haven't loved enough.

— Elif Shafak

Every winner is inclined to think he will be triumphant forever. Every loser tends to fear that he is going to be beaten forever. But both are wrong for the same reason: Everything changes except the face of god.

— Elif Shafak

Faith is only a word if there is no love at its center, so flaccid and lifeless, vague and hollow - not anything you could truly feel.

— Elif Shafak

Father, I am from a different egg than your other children. Think of me as a duckling raised by hens. I am not a domestic bird destined to spend his life in a chicken coop. The water that scares you rejuvenates me. For unlike you, I can swim, and swim I shall. The ocean is my homeland. If you are with me, come to the ocean. If not, stop interfering with me and go back to the chicken coop.

— Elif Shafak

...for love loves power. That is why we can suicidal fall in love with others but can rarely reciprocate the love of those suicidal in love with us.

— Elif Shafak

Fret not where the road will take you. Instead, concentrate on the first step. That's the hardest part and that's what you are responsible for. Once you take that step let everything do what it naturally does and the rest will follow. Do not go with the flow. Be the flow.

— Elif Shafak

Her makeup Catiline Yamaha dev am ever.

— Elif Shafak

He tip-toed past the double bed that had been placed in a corner - wrought-iron headboard, embroidered pillows, amulets against the evil-eye and a satiny, cobalt-blue bedspread. Blue was Slender's favorite color. It was the color for boys, which meant the sky was a boy. So were the rivers and lakes. And the oceans, though he had yet to see one.

— Elif Shafak

How can love be worthy of its name if one selects solely the pretty things and leaves out the hardships? It is easy to enjoy the good and dislike the bad. Anybody can do that. The real challenge is to love the good and the bad together, not because you need to take the rough with the smooth but because you need to go beyond such descriptions and accept love in its entirety.

— Elif Shafak