Yaşar Kemal
Turkish Writer
| Date of Birth | : | 06 Oct, 1923 |
| Date of Death | : | 28 Feb, 2015 |
| Place of Birth | : | Gökçedam, Türkiye |
| Profession | : | Writer |
| Nationality | : | Turkish |
Yaşar Kemal was a Turkish novelist of Kurdish descent best known for his stories of village life and for his outspoken advocacy on behalf of the dispossessed.
A childhood mishap blinded Kemal in one eye, and at age five he saw his father murdered in a mosque. He left secondary school after two years and worked at a variety of odd jobs. In 1950 he was arrested for his political activism, but he was ultimately acquitted. The following year Kemal moved to Istanbul and was hired as a reporter for the daily newspaper Cumhuriyet, where he worked in various capacities until 1963. During this time he published a novella, Teneke (1955; “The Tin Pan”), and the novel İnce Memed (1955; Memed, My Hawk). The latter, a popular tale about a bandit and folk hero, was translated into more than 20 languages and was made into a movie in 1984. Kemal wrote three more novels featuring Memed as the protagonist. In 1962 he joined the Turkish Workers Party, and in 1967 he founded Ant, a weekly political magazine informed by Marxist ideology. He was arrested again in 1971, and in 1996 a court sentenced him to a deferred jail term for alleged seditious statements about the Turkish government’s oppression of the Kurdish people.
Quotes
Total 20 Quotes
This is the true joy in life: Being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one, being a force of nature instead of a feverish, selfish little clod of ailments and grievances, complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy. I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the whole community and as long as I live, it is my privilege to do for it what I can. It is a sort of splendid torch which I have got hold of for the moment and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations.
Beware of false knowledge; it is more dangerous than ignorance.
Both optimists and pessimists contribute to society. The optimist invents the aeroplane, the pessimist the parachute.
Life isn't about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.
The longer I live, the more convinced am I that this planet is used by other planets as a lunatic asylum.
People who say it cannot be done should not interrupt those who are doing it.
Write your Sad times in Sand, Write your Good times in Stone.
We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing.
The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.
A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing.
