I started primary school at a school which educated in a foreign language. Rehber-i Terakki School was known as "infidel school" among people. I can say that I was a naughty bourgeois child, for the way I was then. I was a cheerful and fun child. I could not continue my education for a while after Greece invaded Izmir. Due to the war in those years, we had to move several times. When we finally got back to Adapazarı, I was going to high school. I was expelled from school with 40 other friends because we put a needle in the chair of our arabic teacher at school. I started attending Bursa Boys High School. I can say that my naughty side started to change after that. I started writing my first stories there. My departure from that lifestyle that I was born into and forced to live in started in those years. For some reason I became a calm and contemplative person... I finished high school in 1928 and came to Istanbul. I was going to continue my education at the Faculty of Literature at Istanbul University but I could not. I guess learning Uyghur was not for me. But I can’t lie, I loved Istanbul at first sight. I started to get to know Beyoğlu, Şehzadebaşı coffeehouses and the literati who came there. I was sending the stories I wrote to important magazines and newspapers of that time, and I was constantly working in the field of literature, especially poetry. I met very precious people here, with whom I have been close friends throughout my life and theirs. Orhan Veli, Melih Cevdet, Oktay Rıfat, Cahit Irgat... Even though they were older than us, Peyami Safa, Yahya Kemal... 

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I think I must have made my decision to not make money from anything other than my writing. For that reason, I haven't earned any money that was worth something, in my entire life. With one last hope, my father, sent me to Switzerland, Lausanne, to study trade. I only lasted fifteen days studying trade. Then I immediately went to France, to "Grenoble", known for its resemblance to Istanbul. I enrolled to literature school here. I stayed here for over three years. I could not graduate from any school I went to. I tended to leave from wherever I felt as though I stayed enough. It’s still like that. Now I remember how I had a big fight one evening when Orhan Kemal joked with me "Of course, you studied in France". I said I just traveled, ate, drank, and made love there."