If you want to destroy something in this life, be it acne, a blemish or the human soul, all you need to do is to surround it with thick walls. It will dry up inside.

Shafak’s image links physical and spiritual decay to isolation. “Thick walls” suggest not only literal confinement but also emotional defenses, social segregation, censorship, and the self-protective habits that cut a person off from air, light, and contact. The comparison to acne or a blemish implies that what is walled off may seem shameful or threatening, yet the attempt to hide or contain it can worsen it—turning a living, changeable inner life into something that “dries up.” The line reads as a warning against fear-based enclosure: individuals and societies that barricade themselves may preserve appearances, but at the cost of vitality, empathy, and moral imagination.