Bits from Pamuk's speech, in Other Colours:
Regardless of national circumstances, freedom of thought and expression are universal human rights. These freedoms, which modern people long for as the starving yearn for bread, can never justifiably be limited to nationalist sentiment, moral sensitivities, or hoped for international gain. Some of us have better understanding of the West, some of us have more affection for those who live in the East, and some like me, try to do the two things at the same time, but these attachments, this desire to understand, should never stand in the way of our respect for human rights. To change one's words, to package them in a way that will be acceptable to everyone, and to become skilled in that arena is bit like smuggling contraband through customs, and much the same way, even when successfully accomplished, it produces a feeling of shame and degradation.
Freedom of thought, the happiness that comes of the ability to express the anger deep inside us- we have already mentioned how honor and human dignity depend on it. Many writers we respect and value have chosen to take up forbidden topics purely because the very nature of the prohibition was an injury to their pride; I know this from my own experience. Because when another writer in another house is not free, no writer is free.
Regardless of national circumstances, freedom of thought and expression are universal human rights. These freedoms, which modern people long for as the starving yearn for bread, can never justifiably be limited to nationalist sentiment, moral sensitivities, or hoped for international gain. Some of us have better understanding of the West, some of us have more affection for those who live in the East, and some like me, try to do the two things at the same time, but these attachments, this desire to understand, should never stand in the way of our respect for human rights. To change one's words, to package them in a way that will be acceptable to everyone, and to become skilled in that arena is bit like smuggling contraband through customs, and much the same way, even when successfully accomplished, it produces a feeling of shame and degradation.
Freedom of thought, the happiness that comes of the ability to express the anger deep inside us- we have already mentioned how honor and human dignity depend on it. Many writers we respect and value have chosen to take up forbidden topics purely because the very nature of the prohibition was an injury to their pride; I know this from my own experience. Because when another writer in another house is not free, no writer is free.
