Yesterday, President Bush quoted Ohrhan Pamuk in Istanbul, when he called for Turkey's inclusion in the European Union (an attempt to replay Reagan's "tear down this wall" moment?):
"The Turkish writer Orhan Pamuk has said that the finest view of Istanbul is not from the shores of Europe, or from the shores of Asia, but from a bridge that unites them, and lets you see both. His work has been a bridge between cultures, and so is the Republic of Turkey. The people of this land understand, as Pamuk has observed, that 'What is important is not [a] clash of parties, civilizations, cultures, East and West.' What is important, he says, is to realize 'that other peoples in other continents and civilizations' are 'exactly like you.' "
Here's a website devoted to the author, and here's where you can buy his new book, Snow at Amazon.com.