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
I learned long ago, never to wrestle with a pig. You get dirty, and besides, the pig likes it.
A government that robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul.
Life contains but two tragedies. One is not to get your heart's desire; the other is to get it.
Success does not consist in never making mistakes but in never making the same one a second time.
The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.
Progress is impossible without change; and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.
The person I miss most is the one I could have been.
War does not decide who is right but who is left.
Don't lose faith. Promise yourself that you will be a success story, and I promise you that all the forces of the universe will unite to come to your aid; you might not feel today or for a while, but the longer you wait the bigger the prize.
Experience fails to teach where there is no desire to learn.