Claire Denis Quotes

People ask me where I'm from. I say Ireland, and they are like 'Really? You don't look Irish.' Then you have to explain... people are intrigued, but sometimes you think, 'Why do I have to tell my whole story every time I open my mouth?

All I know is that every time I go to Africa, I am shaken to my core.

Well, I grew up between Holland and Israel and then moved to France when I was eleven.

When I was growing up, I don't think I knew any other child who had been out of Sri Lanka.

I have never considered myself a writer in exile because I grew up outside of my own country, because my father was a diplomat. Therefore, I grew up in Brazil, Chile, Argentina, the United States, I studied in Switzerland - so I've always had perspective on my country - I am thankful for that.

People often presume I'm from whatever country they're from. So Americans presume I'm American and the British presume I'm British. And they're surprised to discover I actually am Australian. And actually some Australians are surprised too.

I'm a third-culture child. It's an interesting concept. Having an American father, a South American mother, born in England, grew up in Hong Kong, went to school in Europe - it makes me a third-culture child, which means you take on the culture of the place where you live. So I'm very adaptable.

I am an American citizen born in Kuwait of Egyptian parents. I grew up in Great Britain, Malaysia, and Egypt and have lived in the United States since 1965, when I was seventeen.

My parents were born abroad. I was born in France, but I feel comfortable everywhere - I don't see the borders.

Sometimes stereotyping happens not because of any nefarious reasons but rather because people don't know who you are or where you come from, so they go for the broad strokes about you, your culture, your faith, all that.

I went to prep school, Eton and Oxford. When people hear that, they think they know you, and you think: 'No, you don't.'

I am quite international. My background, born in Turkey. My family is a Jewish family from Iran, so I went from Turkey to Iran to Israel, and then grew up in Italy and ended up in U.S. for graduate school. So I tend to look at things from an international perspective, and I think that gives you a little bit of a broader view of what's going on.

I've often gone to start a film only to find the producers surprised to discover that I'm American.

I have to expend an awful lot of energy actively undoing the impact of my name. Understandably, people assume that I have at least some connection to Iran. The truth is that I don't. I have very little knowledge about the culture, the language, the history. I've never been to Iran. I've never even been inside a mosque.

My mom is African-American, Native-American, Irish, and Creole, and my father is of Jewish, Russian, and Polish descent. It's made me who I am. Because of my diverse background, I think I can relate to many different people, different stories, and different communities.

What is Africa, anyway? Even I don't know what Africa is, entirely. But I know that it's not some of these simplified sound bites you hear in America.

Like the ancient Silk Road itself, 'The Sound of Silk' will make the foreign familiar while challenging long-held notions of identity and our place in the world.

People presume that just because I am Shahid Kapoor's brother, I must have studied in an international school, gone out on foreign vacations, and had a certain kind of upbringing. But the truth is quite different, and I am very proud of where I come from.

From the moment you enter the league, everyone wants to slap a label on you - some tidy description of what they think you bring to the game. And more often than not, that tag sticks with you, regardless of whether it's accurate.

I grew up in South Mumbai and I am a total homebody, so I was not seen around. I guess that's the reason many believed that I wasn't Indian or can't speak Hindi.

In general, taking soccer out of the picture, as an American living overseas, it's so cool, and I've grown so much. Now I can look at my life from a different perspective.

My music was about travelling a lot and connecting with other people, and English is the voice of travelling.

I seem to be known as much by the moniker 'Mrs Funnybones' as my own name these days. The book was about how a modern woman looks at India and how India looks right back at her. I am glad that India seems to be looking back at me with a grin.

I didn't really grow up with any traditions. I grew up in a pretty liberal household in Southern California. I think that's part of my interest in thinking about heritage. I don't have a second language or cultural heritage in that way.

I only lived in Sudan until I was four years, so I cannot really relate to that. It is just a different lifestyle.