10. City Lights and Happiness

"The photograph of the salep vendor on the bridge is from Ara Guler’s archive – like many of the other beautiful photographs in the museum. “You only like my photographs because they remind you of what Istanbul was like when you were a child,” an oddly irritated Ara Güler sometimes says to me. “No,” I tell the great photographer. “I like your photographs because they’re beautiful.”
But are beauty and memory truly separate things?" (The Innocence of Objects by Orhan Pamuk)

"A lovely spring breeze was wafting through the balcony’s grand doors, carrying the scent of linden trees. The lights of the city shone on the Golden Horn below. Even the slums and shantytowns of Kasımpaşa looked beautiful. I thought how happy I was, even feeling as if this was a prelude to yet greater happiness. The gravity of what had transpired with Füsun confused me, but I told myself that everyone has his secrets, fears, and moments of worry. No one could guess how many of these elegant guests felt similarly uneasy or carried secret spiritual wounds, but it was when we were in crowds like this, surrounded by friends—and having downed a glass of raki or two—that we persuaded ourselves how trivial and transitory those sentiments were." (The Museum of Innocence by Orhan Pamuk)