"It's such a great honour, such a great pleasure," Pamuk told journalists at
Columbia University in New York, where he studied as a visiting scholar in the
1980s. "I'm very happy about the prize."
The boyish Turkish author, who is now a fellow at Columbia, said the award was a cause for celebration not just for him, but his country and culture.
"I think that this is first of all an honour bestowed upon the Turkish language, Turkish culture, Turkey and also recognition of my labours ... my humble devotion to that great art of the novel," he told reporters.
Wearing a black velvet jacket and sporting a wide grin while sitting on his hands as he was introduced, the novelist was ebullient as he described how he learned of the award.
"My first reaction? Who is calling me in the middle of the night? I have a new mobile, there's something wrong with my mobile," he joked, before describing how he broke the news to his daughter on the telephone.
Pamuk, who has courted controversy in his native Turkey by tackling subjects such as the treatment of the Kurdish minority and the Ottoman massacre of Armenians during World War I, declined to be drawn by reporters' questions.
"This is a time for celebration, for enjoying this, rather than making political comments," he told journalists.
When pushed, he said: "This is a day for celebration, for being positive. I have lots of critical energy deep in me but I'm not going to express it today."
"I want to tell my readers both in Turkey and all over the world ... that this prize will not change my working habits, my devotion to this art," he vowed.
Pamuk's books, translated into more than 40 languages, are: "Cevdet Bey and His Sons" (1982), "The Silent House" (1983), "The White Castle" (1985), "The Black Book" (1990), "The New Life" (1994), "My Name Is Red" (1998), "Snow" (2002) and "Istanbul" (2003).