William Saroyan Quotes

I definitely feel Russian inside, even when I'm in America I feel Russian.

I just grew up in the States, so I feel like I identify more with the American culture.

I was born in Okinawa, but on a U.S. Army base. And my father is Japanese-American which means that he is second generation, but my mom was born in the Philippines and raised in Okinawa. So, how do you know where you are generationally from? I can claim all three legitimately, but I like to say that I am third generation American.

Being "Jewish" is way stronger culturally than it is religiously.

I'm certainly proud to be Cuban American, and it's a fantastic opportunity for anybody - regardless of their ethnicity or nationality. It does carry a measure or pride to know where you're from and to know what your roots are.

I don't want to be a race-transcending leader. I want to be deeply understood as a man, as African- American, as a Christian, all that I am.

In a funny way, nothing makes you feel more like a native of your own country than to live where nearly everyone is not.

I've been marching in every single ethnic nationality parade all throughout the City of New York. We're all Americans first and foremost, but people understand their heritage and it's good to see.

I have a sense that many Americans, especially those like me with European or foreign parents, feel they have to invent their families just as they have to invent themselves.

I spoke English at school and Spanish at home, and I'm always eating Dominican food, listening to Dominican music.

I exist in this hyphen. I'm an Indian-American-Muslim kid, but am I more Indian, or am I more American? What part of my identity am I?

The Australian cast of mind is not something I would want to be without - and I couldn't be without. It's not a choice.

When you move around a lot, there are little bits of you from everywhere. I mean, my father's French, and I speak French, and there's a kind of struggle in me that says, 'I'd like to be French.' But I've never been fully part of that culture, that role.

A people without a positive history is like a vehicle without an engine.

When Pakistan beat England at cricket, my Pakistani cousins remind me how English and British I am. When they say, 'You're one of the Queen's advisers,' for them it's, 'Wow - anything's possible in the U.K.'

As a child, I didn't even realize I was Chinese. I was Singaporean, but my identity was wrapped up in the culture I was experiencing every day.

Growing up, my mom always knew that I was more on the Black side than the Spanish side, just because I didn't speak Spanish.

I was born in London. In a lot of ways I'm English, but I have this Iranianness, this culture instilled by my parents, by my family.

My whole British culture in growing up is still with me for sure. I'm very grateful for that.

My family is from Morocco, and I was born and raised in Canada, but I'm an Indian at heart, for sure.

Definitely the Korean culture is very strong to me, and I grew up in Hawaii where Asian-Americans are the dominant culture, but I never thought of myself as the minority.

I'm just as happy to be Polish as I am to be German.

Even with my family, I feel sort of 'other.' I'm the only one of my siblings who wasn't born in Jamaica. For a long time, I didn't feel very connected to Jamaican culture, but because I was raised so heavily with that cultural influence, I realized that my inner monologue is a Jamaican woman.

I'm a whole lot more than just Spanish or Irish or whatever, but definitely, it's given me help. It's given me a push, and I'm very proud of my Spanish heritage.

Growing up, my parents were very much about the Egyptian culture. They never really wanted to assimilate in American culture.