The best part of living in New York is looking at paintings on Friday evenings.
In the evening, the usual trip to the Metropolitan. The best part of living in New York is looking at paintings on Friday evenings. I could stare at these paintings, at the Monets (Étretat!), the Van Goghs, the Chinese landscapes, the Pissarros, the Cézannes, every single day, and be left alone with them until the end of time. Afterward, all I want to do is hurry back home and start painting. But then I realize that my optimism is misplaced, and I don’t really have the strength for it.
— Orhan Pamuk, "Memories of Distant Mountains: Illustrated Notebooks, 2009-2022." Translated by Ekin Oklap. (Knopf, November 26, 2024)











