Top 30 Istanbul Quotes

I read, read enormously on all different fields of Islamic thought, from philosophy to Islamic literature, poetry, exegeses, knowledge of the Hadith, the teachings of the prophet. That’s how I trained myself. And then I was appointed imam by a Sufi master from Istanbul, Turkey.

When you look at Istanbul, from Byzantium to the present day, it’s striking how it has always been a city of the people, with a political voice, right from its early classical history.

The first time I held an African drum in my hands was at Koc University in a forest in the northern suburbs of Istanbul.

Within Istanbul, there’s a ton of people who are totally hip – like, the hippest people you could ever meet.

We spent a month in Japan last year, a week in Istanbul for the United Nations, and nearly three months in my native Nova Scotia, where my two brothers have homes; and we’ll go back there this summer.

In Zagreb, the Old Town really could be Prague. You go two hours to the coast to Opatija, and you really could be in the South of France, in the Croatian Riviera. And then you head down the coast towards Split, and you get into more Turkish architecture, so you can double Istanbul.

Marseilles, Barcelona, Trieste, Istanbul – each romances the Mediterranean in its own fashion, mostly by embracing the sea in sweeping C-shaped bays that date back to antiquity.

I consider myself Istanbul’s storyteller. My subject matter is my town. I consider it my job to explore the hidden patterns of my city’s clandestine corners, its shady, mysterious places, the things I love.

I once stayed in a roach-infested hotel in Istanbul for a work trip. I had to share my room with a male model, and pointedly all we talked about was our other halves.

I see more people taking on the cloak of accountability, more people tiring of the blame game. If we are all connected and our actions in Australia affect us in Istanbul, then we are all to blame and all to be healers. We can’t blame lawyers anymore for the ‘liability’ vs. common sense imbalance.

Istanbul is an unbelievable city, just really beautiful and the people are really, really nice.

Culture is mix. Culture means a mix of things from other sources. And my town, Istanbul, was this kind of mix. Istanbul, in fact, and my work, is a testimony to the fact that East and West combine cultural gracefully, or sometimes in an anarchic way, came together, and that is what we should search for.

There are such beautiful locations outside India, and the experience of shooting in Istanbul was awesome.

Istanbul is a vast place. There are very conservative neighbourhoods, there are places that are upper class, Westernised, consuming Western culture.

Istanbul in the snow is a wonder. The extravagant pleasures on show in the Topkapi Palace Museum – the sultan’s robes thickly lined with squirrel fur, mobile foot-braziers to keep out a cold that whips relentlessly off the Bosphorus – presage modern-day sultanic delights.

If one had but a single glance to give the world, one should gaze on Istanbul.

I left New York after my mother died and, rather aimlessly, had settled in Istanbul for a change of scene. It was a rather dramatic gesture on my part, since I’d lived in New York for 20 years, but I felt I needed something different – the escalating expense and pressure of New York had begun to weary me.

I love visiting churches and I think I’ve visited every mosque in Istanbul.

So far, I have not come to any of the positions that I have filled through wanting to be there. I was sought – people wanted me to come to those posts. I am talking about all my positions: mayor of Istanbul, chairman of the party, prime minister.

The Lumiere brothers first exhibited moving pictures in Paris in 1896. A year later, there was a private showing at the Yildiz palace in Istanbul.

From a very young age, I suspected there was more to my world than I could see: somewhere in the streets of Istanbul, in a house resembling ours, there lived another Orhan so much like me he could pass for my twin, even my double.

Turks have long admired the sultan, Mehmet II, for his military triumphs, especially his capture of Constantinople, now known as Istanbul, in 1453.

I came across humanity in Istanbul, and all I know about life comes from Istanbul, and definitely, I am writing about Istanbul. I also love the city because I live there, it has formed me, and it’s me. Of course it is natural. If somebody lived all his life in Delhi, he will write about Delhi.

When I was growing up, many of my relatives had never seen a black person before. Today, hundreds, maybe thousands of Africans live in Istanbul’s old city alone. It’s hard to imagine their lives in their human totality.

As a Liverpool fan, I’m an eternal optimist because of what we did in Istanbul in 2005.

I have been on dialysis in Istanbul, Milan, Indonesia, Manila, London. It’s – it’s amazing.

The coffee’s good in Italy. It’s good in Spain. It’s good in Istanbul. The coffee’s not so good in America.

Istanbul is inspiring because it has its own code of architecture, literature, poetry, music.

I found that the loudest fans in the world are in Istanbul.

I ate fantastic Italian food in Croatia, which you wouldn’t expect. The food in Istanbul was amazing. I never would’ve expected that and the food, I guess you’re learning something about me, the food in Prague, they’re very, very heavy meat eaters, like, a lot of meat, which is great.