Writer Elif Shafak never takes the easy route. “World history shows we should be careful whenever anyone promises simple answers to complex questions,” she says, speaking with characteristic precision. Whether teaching at the University of Oxford, lecturing on women’s rights or writing one of the many novels and essays that have made her Turkey’s most read female writer, she is an uncompromising public intellectual. Here, the Honor and Three Daughters of Eve author discusses what we can learn from belief systems that have been dismissed by many, her relationship with the Turkish and English languages and her penchant for goth metal music.

Why do you take issue with the idea of certainty?
Life is closer to water than to stone. Humans learn a lot from opposites. For example, the ...