Dana Gioia Quotes

If the story-teller is to nourish the roots of his culture, society must set him free to follow his vision wherever it takes him.

I found a greater identity with my own emotions in the Armenian culture as I grew older, as well as from the beginning, although I didn't know anything about it.

In order to be universal, you have to be rooted in your own culture.

When people speak their own language you get a much better sense of who they are.

In all my shows, I'm not interested in the iconic shots of the Capitol and the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial. I'm always interested in trying to get the culture of the place - trying to get it right.

We have to preserve folk in its authenticity. Else folk will become fake.

I think it's important to learn about the culture of the place where you live.

When I came to India, it's just a different country, but the culture was same that I grew up in.

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.

Now that I'm older, I appreciate my culture and I appreciate Spanish. I feel bad I didn't pick up on it earlier.

We, as Palestinian-Americans... will not change who we are to make anyone comfortable.

I lost my accent pretty quickly, so everyone assumes I was born and raised in America. But I'm very much still in touch with my Filipino roots. That will never go away.

It is good to be well connected with English language, literature and history, but the knowledge of our culture and roots is equally important.

Everywhere the fatal spirit of imitation, of reference to European standards, penetrates and threatens to blight whatever of original growth might adorn the soil.

I'm a black American playwright. I couldn't be anything else. I make my art out of black American culture; they're all cut out of the same cloth. That's who I am; that's who I write about.

Although I write in English, and despite the fact that I'm from America, I consider myself an Armenian writer. The words I use are in English, the surroundings I write about are American, but the soul, which makes me write, is Armenian. This means I am an Armenian writer and deeply love the honor of being a part of the family of Armenian wrtiters.

The quickest way to learn about a new place is to know what it dreams of.

We should see to it that our people are steeped in a real knowledge and understanding of our national culture.

I think it's important to be sincere. And I could be the most sincere just staying in [my] mother language actually. And that's the reason why I stay composing and writing in French.

Anywhere in New York, anywhere in the country, somewhere there's going to be a Coke sign. People identify with Coke. You can write a novel about New York and people from the country will read it if they feel that you've made them familiar with New York.

Visit to Africa reshaped my point-of-view of colonialism. It reshaped my point-of-view of my own sense of source, and my own place of birth. It made it more organic inside of me, because it placed me in a position where my job was to understand and to become more African.

Black culture is very difficult to explain to people who don't have any direct contact with it.

I feel very proud to be Mexican. I didn't have the opportunity to learn Spanish when I was a girl, but ... it's never too late to get in touch with your roots.

You cannot tear up ancient rootages and safely plant the tree of liberty in soil that is not native to it.

I don't know how to write without thinking what people would want. You don't know whether they want you to be black or white, so you kind of get a gray, something in the middle.