My readers don’t see Turkey's touristic places. I am not concerned with those. Friends who read me in Turkey say I am a little too despondent and gloomy. Perhaps due to me foreigners find the Turks' view of Turkey a bit pessimistic, but what can I do, that is how I am. I do not see this as peculiar to myself, but as the truth. On the other hand, the fact that I come from a relatively wealthy family—although one which later became poorer—and received a good education, made me familiar with western culture and art. And I drew the energy for my writing not from poor neighbourhoods, but from the lives of the middle and upper classes; from the westernised rich. I am accused of not taking a sufficiently local and national viewpoint. And abroad I am accused of looking at Turkey from the inside. I have always been criticised, both here and abroad, of not sufficiently belonging here or not sufficiently belonging to the world. I just do what comes naturally. Do not think that I always ignore such talk. I listen, and then do something.