Min Jin Lee Quotes

We should not check American ideals at the door when we engage in discussions with other nations.

For many Americans, 'Vietnam' is a word associated with war and the extraordinarily complex history between our countries. But since normalization began, the U.S. and Vietnam have steadily built bonds of partnership, demonstrating that we can recognize history without being imprisoned by it.

Factors affecting effective regional cooperation are mindsets and perceptions emanating from the past.

I bet the hard liners in both our countries are bleeding when we shake hands.

People and their cultures perish in isolation, but they are born and reborn in contact with other men and women, with man and woman or another culture, another creed, another race.

For the Americans, it is not attractive to hear what the similarities are between them and the Iranian people. It is attractive to hear how different the Iranians are.

We Americans have an obligation to come to China, to learn more about China. Why? Because with each passing day, it's going to be more and more in our future.

I'm Nigerian. I'm African. I have a lot to say. Apart from what I say, though, is the feeling. People can relate to that feeling. It's a reciprocal relationship. They feed off me and I feed off them.

Much of the relationship between the peoples of two countries has nothing to do with treaties or pieces of paper exchanged by people like me.

We are asking the nations of Europe between whom rivers of blood have flowed, to forget the feuds of a thousand years.

Cultural exchange rarely takes place on equal terms.

If France, Germany, and Great Britain – who have often been at war with each other – are now friends, then India, Pakistan, and China could become friends, too.

In all your intercourse with the natives, treat them in the most friendly and conciliatory manner which their own conduct will admit.

Public Diplomacy – the open exchange of ideas and information – is an inherent characteristic of democratic societies. Its global mission is central to … foreign policy. And it remains indispensable to … national interests, ideals and leadership role in the world.

I have come here, therefore, on a voyage of discovery of the mind and heart of America and to place before you our own heart. Thus we may promote that understanding and cooperation which, I feel sure, both our countries earnestly desire.

Like many foreign students when they go abroad, I was instantly thrust into a position of having to explain and defend my country. That is a very common predicament.

If a nation cannot face its past, it has no future.

Any nation that forgets its past cannot have a future.

When two nations have competing national identities, the solutions are either imposed though force by one side over the other or require a new conception of identity that allows for compromise.

For more than 1000 years our spiritual traditions and common values have been nurtured and begotten here. Today, as we restore the value of patriotism, historical memory and cultural tradition, we are seeking firmer bonds with Mount Athos.

I think about the Arabs not as enemies but as cousins. Even when we are in a fierce conflict with them, they are more of a kind of family - with all the problems of a family. We have to live with them.

There is a restless identity in the New World. The New World needs an identity without guilt or blame.

Being in the European Union, we would be building bridges between the 1.5 bn people of Muslim world to the non-Muslim world. They have to see this. If they ignore it, it brings weakness to the E.U.

I think U.S. and Chinese businesses need a common language and dialogue.

I'm a first-generation kid in this country. I so identify with America and its culture. I'm a citizen, I was born here. I'm American. At the same time, like most first-generation kids, I have this other identity to another country back home, which is India.