Aleksandar Hemon Quotes

Culture, which makes talent shine, is not completely ours either, nor can we place it solely at our disposal. Rather, it belongs mainly to our country, which gave it to us, and to humanity, from which we receive it as a birthright.

I was born in Lebanon and emigrated to the U.S. and went back. I'd been raised in a French school in Beirut. Lebanon is a peculiar place, so bicultural it goes along with you. There is a Western influence, an Eastern influence. Most people are fluctuating between those identities.

The question was heatedly debated of how much Western culture should be brought into China.

I believe that national sovereignties will shrink in the face of universal interdependence.

In this age of growing interconnectedness, we understand that turning our backs on the world is simply not an option.

What will remain of our cultural identity if audiovisual Europe consists of ... sitting in front of Japanese TV sets showing American programs.

National cultures and heritages must compete for man's attention with the mind-absorbing advances of universal science.

We are on the cusp of this time where I can say, "I speak as a citizen of the world" without others saying, "God, what a nut.

In this shrinking world, it is futile to seek safety behind geographical barriers.

I think it's important to be reminded that that's what this country is comprised of - people from other countries.

I'm more American than anything else. I grew up in China, but I was fulfilled at a young age by American music. It was my biggest inspiration.

Israel is too attached to America, too influenced by America. It should be connected to Europe. America is based on mythology - the free man, the individual, the open frontier. Europe is more conscious of history. Take Britain and Shakespeare. You shape your identity through history.

I immediately was captured by 'The Reluctant Fundamentalist.' It gave me a springboard into contemporary Pakistan and a dialogue between Pakistan and the rest of the world.

People constantly express surprise that Americans are so hot for Shakespeare. But Britain's culture is American culture, too.

From jazz, the blues, country and rock to Hollywood movies, culture has in many ways been our greatest export (or our most obnoxious one, depending on your point of view).

We are living in a global world - but most schools and books still tell us only parochial histories of one particular country or culture. The truth is that there are no longer any independent countries in the world.

Shakespeare is as naturally a part of American culture as it is the British culture; the Americans have a natural interest in their heritage.

Books hold no passports. There's only one true literary tradition: the human.

Country [China] needs to continue opening up and keep connecting. It needs to realize that the world has become one. The old concept of isolation, the idea that you can solve your problems on your own does not work anymore - neither in cultural, economic, nor political terms.

To be an Irish poet after that 19th century in which there was such a struggle toward the light, I think still will always be in the hearts of the writers of my generation and the generations before and hopefully the generations after.

I've never left my culture. I've left my country, but I've not left my culture. In the same way, you shouldn't be worried why George Lucas is going to the outer galaxy to make a movie. He's still making a film within his culture; he's making an American film. I go to Thailand or the Peruvian jungle, the Amazon, and I still make Bavarian films.

We live now in a global culture where anything that happens in a place that's 90 minutes from your shores really affects you.

The spread of yoga is the symbol of a changing world. It represents a world where knowledge flows, without restriction of country, creed or class. It represents a world where people come together across boundaries, for causes and concerns that unite the planet.

Biological family is too small of a vision. Patriotism is far too myopic. A love for our own relatives and a love for the people of our own country are not bad things, but our love does not stop at the border.

Language is the archives of history.