The Best Quotes on Having Lost All Hope by Turkish Literature Authors

Sometimes, the helplessness we find ourselves in grows like an avalanche. It keeps growing until we can’t breathe. You want to seek refuge in someone who will understand you, but it’s not happening… Words become tangled, and you can’t speak. It’s at that very moment you turn to books. You find yourself in every sentence, line by line… Here, we have compiled a few quotes from famous Turkish literature authors that best describe the helplessness we feel to our core.

Madonna in a Fur Coat by Sabahattin Ali

“Then you step outside,

looking up, the sun still overhead.

For the umpteenth time, you utter the sentence you’ve been crafting for years:

‘What can we do, it wasn’t meant to be…’” 💭✨

Çizik by Özdemir Asaf

“Wait,” she said and went away.

I didn’t wait, and neither did she come back…

It felt like something as final as death,

yet no one actually perished…”

Tutunamayanlar by Oğuz Atay

“Across from my bed, there’s a window. The walls in the room are empty. How did I spend ten years in this house? Didn’t I ever feel like putting up a painting on the wall? What have I been doing? No one ever advised me.

In the end, I’ve become someone devoid of purpose. This is where it all ends. I never hung a painting, afraid it might turn out bad;

I never truly lived, fearing I might live poorly.”

Yüksek Topuklar by Murathan Mungan

“Every person pays a price for being themselves in society.

More or less, but always a price…

No one can be themselves without a cost.

This cost is often loneliness…”

Ruhi Mücerret by Murat Menteş

“If my life were a movie,

I would either doze off while watching or walk out halfway through.”

Ece Temelkuran

“When someone feels incredibly lonely, they give birth to one more of themselves inside;

So that it would say, ‘Don’t be afraid…’’

Aile Çay Bahçesi by Yekta Kopan

“Throughout my life, I’ve gazed at my life as if peering into the storefront of a second-hand store.”

Saatleri Ayarlama Enstitüsü by Ahmet Hamdi Tanpınar

“The loss I experienced was so immense that, at first, I couldn’t comprehend it. Nor could I measure its impact on my life. I simply carried within me an extremely heavy, pitch-black weight. Then, a different emotion, a kind of sense of liberation, mingled with this desolation. I had freed myself from a burden. Emine would never die again. In fact, she couldn’t even fall ill. She would remain there, just as she lingered in a corner of my mind. Many other things in my life could still frighten me, and various disasters might befall me. However, the most dreadful possibility, the fear of losing her, was no longer there. At any moment, I wouldn’t have to look around amidst her illness, and I wouldn’t have to live with that torment.

“The worst that could have happened has already occurred. I am free now.”

Gündökümü by Tomris Uyar

“I find myself thinking that I must find a way to die without proving this society right. If I die of lung cancer, they’ll say, ‘Well, she smoked a lot.’ If I die of cirrhosis, they’ll say, ‘She drank too much.’ If I’m hit by a car, they’ll probably say, ‘She must have been slightly intoxicated; the driver is innocent.’ In Turkey, even suicide is not allowed. Medicine and liquor bottle caps won’t open, water might not come, the gas might not work, the train might not be on time, and you can’t throw yourself underneath it.”

What quote resonates with you most?