Jackie Mason Quotes

I love my heritage both as someone who grew up as a Muslim and as an Indian - it's part of who I am and I would never deny it.

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 don't think I related to the Irish Catholic surroundings that was my environment when I was growing up.

I've never understood people who say they're not a practicing Jew. You never hear a black guy say he's not a practicing African-American. What does it even mean?

I feel more Jewish than I do Iranian.

When I was growing up, we spoke Egyptian, we ate Egyptian food, we had other Egyptian friends. It was my father's preference.

I always identified myself as non-Swedish. I was never discriminated against, because I looked Swedish and speak without an accent. But I had an outsider's perspective.

I am not a Hollywood Jew and I won't ever be one.

I guess everything having to do with your background has some influence on how you tell stories but it's hard to parse how growing up in a Jewish community in Minnesota really affected it.

The greatest guarantee for the preservation of a person’s identity is language and faith, and all Armenians must carry these two values.

The greatest guarantee for the preservation of a person’s identity is language and faith, and all Armenians must carry these two values.

I consider myself half Spanish.

I grew up around so many different people in so many different neighborhoods, but the Latino heritage, the neighborhoods, and people have always been a part of my life, ever since I was a kid.

Every day I think about where I come from and I am still proud to be who I am: first, a Kabyle from La Castellane, then an Algerian from Marseille, and then a Frenchman.

I am Jewish. My real name is Chris Tuckenberg. A lot of people don't know about that.

I always felt the Jewish part more. In fact, growing up I felt like a Jew among WASPs. My brother is more decidedly Waspy.

I am an eighth Chinese, and I come from a large Chinese-American family in Los Angeles.

My father grew up in Brooklyn, N.Y., with my grandparents. In Norwegian my name is pronounced 'Yoo' but my father used to call me 'Joe.'

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.

My mother is French-Italian with a little Spanish blood in her. I've been raised, and she was, as far as I know, raised as a Christian.

Well, I'm Czech, but Polish, Czech, no matter, it's my name.

'Be faithful to your roots' is the liberal version of 'Stay in your ghetto.'

Most of my life I was occupied with American television and American food. My ethnicity was my choice. It still is.

I'm about as Chinese as Herbert Hoover.

Both my parents are Catholic and staunch believers. I'm not a Catholic now, but I still carry part of it with me.