Without a Country Quotes

“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it,”
― Ayşe Kulin, Without a Country

“Why can’t they tell the difference between being Jewish and what the Israeli government did?” I asked Su. “Some people don’t think clearly when they’re angry,”
― Ayşe Kulin, Without a Country

“You always said time was precious, and we should never be afraid to show our feelings, that there’s no place for pride in love.”
― Ayşe Kulin, Without a Country

“It’s always the minorities who get targeted when nationalism boils over,”
― Ayşe Kulin, Without a Country

“Her parents were left-wing intellectuals at a time when leftists were being interrogated, arrested, and shot.”
― Ayşe Kulin, Without a Country

“. I don’t know when it will happen, but Hitler will be gone one day, and only then will sociologists be able to analyze what has happened, and why. What I mean to say, son, is that evil, too, can be instructive.”
― Ayşe Kulin, Without a Country

“Politicians are all the same, whatever party they belong to.”
― Ayşe Kulin, Without a Country

“Goebbels, his minister of propaganda and the man who purportedly said, “If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it,” was watching the blaze.”
― Ayşe Kulin, Without a Country

“Obedience is unquestioning submission to authority; discipline requires adherence to certain essential rules”
― Ayşe Kulin, Without a Country

“Unfortunately, politics has contaminated religion, which should be a conduit for love.”
― Ayşe Kulin, Without a Country

“Tanrı misafiri sözcüğü sadece Türklere aitti.”
― Ayşe Kulin, Kanadı Kırık Kuşlar

“Türkiye'ydi burası; harika şeylerin ömrünün uzun sürmediği ülke!”
― Ayşe Kulin, Kanadı Kırık Kuşlar

“olive oil, tomato rice pilaf, and blancmange with”
― Ayşe Kulin, Without a Country

“. . all were consigned to the flames. Thousands of books reduced to ashes because their authors are Jews, or Communist, or nihilists, but in truth because the power of ideas poses a threat to Hitler.”
― Ayşe Kulin, Without a Country

“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually”
― Ayşe Kulin, Without a Country

“Something happened?” “The German parliament has passed that constitutional amendment they’ve been drafting since the Reichstag fire.” “Oh no!” “Yes. The Law to Remedy the Distress of People and Reich is in force. As of today, Hitler has the power to make laws without passing them through Parliament. March 24 will go down in history as the day German democracy died.” “But how could that happen? Didn’t anyone oppose it?” “They changed the rules of procedure. And there was intimidation. The Communists were all either in jail or in hiding. Opponents were prevented from taking the floor.” “But even after the latest elections, the Nazi party still doesn’t have a majority. Doesn’t it take two-thirds of Parliament to pass a measure like that?” “You’re right. But the Social Democrats were the only party to vote against the act.” “What!” Gerhard nearly choked on his coffee, splattering it on his shirt. “That makes no sense. Why would the other parties go along with it?” “Because of that Reichstag Fire Decree. You know Hitler’s been using it to imprison his enemies, unleash his storm troopers, suspend civil liberties. He’s beaten the other parties into submission. And today they gave up, the cowards.” “I don’t know why I’m so surprised,” Gerhard said. “Two weeks ago, they forced the mayor of Frankfurt to resign. Just like that, after ten years. Landmann completely transformed Frankfurt. To see a progressive like him, the first Jew ever to hold that office, replaced by a filthy Nazi!”
― Ayşe Kulin, Without a Country

“Go like water and return like water.”
― Ayşe Kulin, Without a Country

“Had she and Korhan just spent six wonderful years together, or had she let six years slip through her fingers? She couldn't decide.”
― Ayşe Kulin, Without a Country

“...Life can scatter even the closest family. What's important is that we each find a place where we can be happy.”
― Ayşe Kulin, Without a Country

“Ah, Gerhard. Life is lonely enough as it is. Don't you leave me, too.”
― Ayşe Kulin, Without a Country

“Turkish, Armenian, or German, you men are all the same.”
― Ayşe Kulin, Without a Country

“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it.”
― Ayşe Kulin, Without a Country

“They live in Turkey. Turks should speak Turkish,” the man said. “But their mother tongue is Greek!” “They should be more Turkish.” “Maybe you should be more human!”
― Ayşe Kulin, Without a Country

“silence was complicity.”
― Ayşe Kulin, Without a Country

“This is but the prologue. Where books are burnt, people in the end are burnt, too.”
― Ayşe Kulin, Without a Country

“Nationalism, propaganda, rumormongering, bans on freedom of expression—was that where this county was headed, too?”
― Ayşe Kulin, Without a Country

“She didn’t know that the sermons delivered in some of the mosques were now calling on the pious to attack leftist demonstrators. Religious passions were being openly inflamed to serve a political agenda.”
― Ayşe Kulin, Without a Country

“She was so removed from the political pulse of her country that she didn’t even realize how religious extremism for political gain was sowing the seeds of anti-Semitism.”
― Ayşe Kulin, Without a Country

“There are two things I ask of you. One is to learn to forgive those you love. Be prepared. You will be called on one day to forgive.”
― Ayşe Kulin, Without a Country

“You’re a legal scholar. You have the luxury of dissecting thorny questions one step at a time. I’m a doctor. If I were to remove a tumor one piece at a time—a bit today, a little next week, some more next year—the patient would die. To be effective, treatment must be immediate, swift, and thorough!”
― Ayşe Kulin, Without a Country