Miriam Toews Quotes

I have my husband and children near me in Rome, and I feel this is where we are temporarily belonging. But personally, all my life, I have felt the absence of a sense of history.

I understand people want to hold on to their roots.

I have deep roots in this Oklahoma soil. It makes me proud.

For immigrant generations especially, family is the first structure, or shelter, for a people who are in exile.

My family in St. Louis brings me to my roots.

The notion of someone who is fitting in or trying to become part of a larger family... It's hard to separate that from my own Jewish roots.

We should not ignore or isolate our roots, no matter where we stay.

My family goes way back in New York. So I am a New Yorker; I feel like a New Yorker. It's in my bones.

My ancestors make up the skin of the world. That's who that is. That's what that is. That's us.

A person does not belong to a place until there is someone dead under the ground.

It's always good to go home. It's strengthening to see your past and know you have someplace to go where you're part of a people.

My heritage has been my grounding, and it has brought me peace.

I love my heritage!

OK, well maybe I have to get back to Judaism. In the sense that if I look at me and my forebears forever stretching back to I don't know, whenever there's no sense of place and therefore no sense of nationality.

I'm Creole, and I'm down to earth.

I love where I'm from. I don't live there because of the circumstances, but all my family is there. It's what's inside, it's not what's outside that determines the culture and the feeling.

For a while, I thought a lot about lineage. Where do I belong? Who am I standing next to?

No matter how American I become, I'm considered part of the Chinese community by my own family.

It's always good to remember where you come from and celebrate it. To remember where you come from is part of where you're going.

People will not look forward to posterity who are not anxious to look backward to their ancestry

I have a deep tribal sense. I grew up in a synagogue that my ancestors built. I sat in the third row. My family was decent. They were good people; they were handshake people. So I never had a sense of rebellion.

American? Indian? I don't know what these words mean. In Italy, it is all about blood, family, where you come from. I'm asked where I am from. I'm from nowhere; I always was, but now I am happy knowing it.

Of course, our roots are in Germany, it always will be the feeling of home.

Sometimes in Asian homes it is all about where we've come from, which is important too, but it is about where you live and where you're born and the people who are the same as you.

Traditions are our roots and a profile of who we are as individuals and who we are as a family. They are our roots, which give us stability and a sense of belonging - they ground us.