Loneliness and solitude are two different things. When you are lonely, it is easy to delude yourself into believing that you are on the right path. S… - Elif Şafak

«God is busy with the completion of your work, both outwardly and inwardly. He is fully occupied with you. Every human being is a work in progress that is slowly but inexorably moving toward perfection. We are each an unfinished work of art both waiting and striving to be completed. God deals with each of us separately because humanity is a fine art of skilled penmanship where every single dot is equally important for the entire picture.

غير أن المرأة لا تصير أمّا بمجرد الإنجاب،بل عليها أن تتعلم الأمومة، إنها معرفة. يأخذ استيعابها عند البعض وقتًا أطول من الآخرين.فهناك مثيلاتى، من يجدن أنفسهن يرتعشن حتى العظام من هول التجربة.

I like to borrow a metaphor from the great poet and mystic Rumi who talks about living like a drawing compass. One leg of the compass is static. It is fixed and rooted in a certain spot. Meanwhile, the other leg draws a huge wide circle around the first one, constantly moving. Just like that, one part of my writing is based in Istanbul. It has strong local roots. Yet at the same time the other part travels the whole wide world, feeling connected to several cities, cultures, and peoples.