Nobel Prize–winning novelist Orhan Pamuk reflects on the visual foundations of his writing and the formative influence of painting on his literary imagination: “I wanted to be a painter till the age of 22.”
Pamuk describes his eventual turn to fiction not as a rejection of visual art but as an extension of it, one that seeks to translate images into language.
Calling himself a “visual novelist,” Pamuk situates his work within a tradition that includes writers such as Leo Tolstoy and Marcel Proust. He explains how scenes first appear as images in the novelist’s mind and are then rendered into prose, inviting readers to reconstruct those images for themselves. For Pamuk, storytelling begins not with plot but with a constellation of visual impressions that demand connection.
The conversation also turns to the emotional and intellectual rhythms of writing. Pamuk describes the novel as a form shaped by contrasting moods: one rational and editorial, the other intuitive and poetic. He argues that both are essential to sustained literary creation. Drawing on his own experience as a former poet, he emphasizes the importance of recognizing and respecting these shifts in creative energy.
Throughout the interview, Pamuk offers a rare, reflective account of how novels are made: from image to sentence, from inspiration to structure, and from private vision to shared meaning.
Orhan Pamuk was interviewed by Malou Wedel Bruun at the Admiral Hotel, Copenhagen, in February 2024.
Camera: Jakob Solbakken
Edit: Signe Boe Pedersen
Produced by Christian Lund
Copyright: Louisiana Channel, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, 2026.
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