Ataol Behramoğlu quotes

Ataol Behramoğlu is a prominent Turkish poet, writer, and translator known for his influential role in modern Turkish literature. His poems often explore themes of love, freedom, and social justice. He has received numerous awards and continues to inspire new generations with his works and activism. Here are 22 of his quotes:

I want to write poetry, I'm bored, disgusted by my habits If I stop thinking and put my hands down perhaps I will have much to say I'm scurrying to the attic like a solitary bug Before you become old and ugly, I must kiss you on the nose. (Ataol Behramoğlu)
Death, one experiences alone Love is a two-person thing. View quote
Ataol Behramoğlu
Writing poems is perhaps the loveliest deception Later they'll make a picture or something, then go and drink wine. View quote
Ataol Behramoğlu
In the most affirming places of their love Suddenly they grew tired, out of breath Little by little they felt the death Of some places left in darkness. View quote
Ataol Behramoğlu
I've learned some things from having lived: If you're alive, experience largely, merge with rivers, heavens, cosmos For what we call living is a gift given to life And life is a gift bestowed upon us. View quote
Ataol Behramoğlu
To your utmost, listen to every beautiful song As though filling all the self with sound and melody One should plunge head-first into life As one dives from a cliff into the emerald sea. View quote
Ataol Behramoğlu
Creativity is a hidden gem. Education is needed to uncover it. View quote
Ataol Behramoğlu
The poet should be responsible to the poem. View quote
Ataol Behramoğlu
A poem is a living organism. View quote
Ataol Behramoğlu
I do not remember any other term when the force that had captured the political power in this country had become so vulgar as it is today, so corrupt, and so hypocritical; when the legal system had been so downtrodden, deteriorated, collapsed and turned into a means of cruelty. View quote
Ataol Behramoğlu
Once more in that hour of darkness In dark black waters they arise Dark songs pass before their eyes They lie awake gazing into darkness. (Ataol Behramoğlu)
Who can know anything best of all What does it mean to know anything best Which religion doesn't grow old. View quote
Ataol Behramoğlu
To live on the earth is to become part of it To strike down roots that won't pull free. View quote
Ataol Behramoğlu
Distant lands should draw you, people you don't know. View quote
Ataol Behramoğlu
No matter how much the joy, your life should be filled with yearning. View quote
Ataol Behramoğlu
They were eyes, that while gazing on the world Rendered it brilliant with meaning. View quote
Ataol Behramoğlu
How awful always to take refuge in known words A person should let himself go. View quote
Ataol Behramoğlu
I was going to write a poem, I was stifling, fed up with old things. View quote
Ataol Behramoğlu
I've learned some things from having lived: If you're alive, experience one thing with all your power Your beloved should be worn out from being kissed And you should drop exhausted from the smelling of a flower. View quote
Ataol Behramoğlu
Distant lands should draw you, people you don't know To read every book, know other's lives, you should be burning You shouldn't exchange for anything the pleasure of a glass of water No matter how much the joy, your life should be filled with yearning. View quote
Ataol Behramoğlu
Gulls into the water, women proudly into the bazaars I was going to write a poem, I was stifling, fed up with old things Eat, my mother says, but they're all things I've grown accustomed to, in the end. Like Camus and - I don't know - people like that, I'm cracking up Everything will begin when it untangles itself from your hair. (Ataol Behramoğlu)
I'd make me into a brand new sailor if I were God Maybe there were new things over there It comes from within me to write as though rabid, I'm hungry, do you understand Let the doctors call it what they will Who can know anything best of all What does it mean to know anything best Which religion doesn't grow old. View quote
Ataol Behramoğlu