Sometimes I Would See Them Not As

Love Is A Sacred Silence.

I Sometimes Joke That I Am The First Writer Of Historical Fiction Who Can Look Out His Window And Point To The Objects In His Novels. I Have A View Of The Entrance To The Bosporus, The Old City, Hagia Sophia, The Blue Mosque.

How Much Can We Ever Know About The Love And Pain In Another Heart? How Much Can We Hope To Understand Those Who Have Suffered Deeper Anguish, Greater Deprivation, And More Crushing Disappointments Than We Ourselves Have Known?

When Two People Love Each Other As We Do, No One Can Come Between Them, No One," I Said, Amazed At The Words I Was Uttering Without Preparation. "lovers Like Us, Because They Know That Nothing Can Destroy Their Love, Even On The Worst Days, Even When They Are Heedlessly Hurting Each Other In The Cruelest , Most Deceitful Ways, Still Carry In Their Hearts A Consolation That Never Abandons Them." (p.191)

With The Death Of My Father, It Wasn't Just The Objects Of Everyday Life That Had Changed; Even The Most Ordinary Street Scenes Had Become Irreplaceable Mementos Of A Lost World Whose Every Detail Figured In The Meaning Of The Whole.