I have a certain pool of subject matter that I like to write about, things that interest me: politics, religion, ecology, and relationships between men and women. And that's usually what I focus on.
Having reached the halfway mark in the alphabet, my prime focus is on writing each new book as well as I can.
While I've worked on many topics and written many books, I have not abandoned my interest in multiple intelligences.
Also, as an author, character has always been what I'm most interested in - much more so than plot or setting, although those are good things too.
I regard writing not as an investigation of character but as an exercise in the use of language, and with this I am obsessed.
When I'm writing, I don't read much crime at all - you don't want to get distracted by other people's plots.
I've realized that I will probably write about teenagers and that time in people's lives - I'll probably come back to it a lot.
When the whole world reads your books, is there any other happiness for a writer? I am happy that my books are read in 57 languages. But I am focused on Istanbul not because of Istanbul but because of humanity. Everyone is the same in the end.
When an author is too meticulous about his style, you may presume that his mind is frivolous and his content flimsy.
When I'm really involved or getting towards the end of a novel, I can write for up to ten hours a day. At those times, it's as though I'm writing a letter to someone I'm desperately in love with.
