Orhan Pamuk

I just finished reading Snow, and along comes a decent profile of the author, Orhan Pamuk. While the novel is scrupulously balanced in its examination of the conflict between political Islam and the West, Pamuk is not without opinions himself:

Unfortunately, my country's funny and tragic history is perhaps turning out to be, because of George Bush, the funny and tragic history of the world. That is, the arrogant, not-very-reasonable elite of my country destroyed its democracy when backwards, illiterate, conservative parts of the country resisted so-called modernization, globalization, call it whatever. They bombed and suppressed and destroyed their own country. Now that Turkey has lived this for, say, 80 years, 100 years, I don't want America to make that mistake.