Istanbul on Pamuk’s book

Italian edition of Orhan Pamuk’s Istanbul has this lovely green cover, perfect to draw on it. A present I just made to a friend who has been with me in Istanbul more than 15 years ago. I copied my drawings from the old sketchbook, a black and white one. I wish I could go to Istanbul again and make new sketches from real.

In 1995 we spent an afternoon on a fabric factory’s roof, watching the sunset on Bosforo. Downstairs, men where carrying enormous weights on their heads and shoulders.

In this chapter (“Passion for drawing”?), Pamuk’s six good reasons for enjoy drawing. In the Nobel Lecture, he explains why he likes – and needs – writing, which could be more or less the same with drawing.

“Am I authentic, or am I posing? This kind of thing upsets me. I’m very worried about being pretentious or inauthentic, or just writing for the sake of writing. So I am also a dreadful maniac; I write all the time. Whenever I have a nervousness or tension, I pull out a notebook and write some things in it. I like that, and it calms me down. Sometimes I draw, sometimes I write, and that makes me happy”. (Pamuk in this interview)