Claire Messud Quotes

I don't feel I have to defend myself for being English or for being Irish, because, in a way, I don't feel either. And, in another way, of course, I'm both.

I'm a writer. In Latin America, they say I'm a Latin-American writer because I also write in Spanish and my books are translated, but I am an American citizen and my books are published here, so I'm also an American writer.

I kind of want to be seen as an American writer, not just a New York writer.

I never thought of myself as a New York poet or as an American poet.

I recognize the fact that I don't have one single drop of Japanese blood in my body. But I've always felt half-Japanese at heart.

I became an American in 2006. It got me thinking about what is my America and what's my perception of America.

It's very hard to be black in this country and hate America. It's really hard to live like that. I would actually argue it's impossible to fully see yourself.

If I don't measure up as an American writer, at least leave me to my delusion.

It was very hard for me, for most of my life, to feel American, or call myself American, and that is a very complicated topic that would require a very long conversation.

I'm a Jew. I think of myself as a Jew first and Englishman second.

It's hard to think of myself as an American, and yet I am not from India, a place where I was not born and where I have never lived.

To me, I grew up in the suburbs of Chicago, and my identity is of a suburban Chicago person. It's not like, 'Oh, I'm Indian.' I'm not. I'm American.

I've always had a complex relationship towards my identity as an American.

I feel so much more connected with my Asian side than I do with my British side - of course, I'm proud of my British side.

This country has such little sense of itself sometimes, I'm astonished. America is one of the biggest myth-making countries, whether we're talking about how many books are published, how many movies we make. But the greatest myth of all is what America is.

I think of myself as Mirren rather than Mironova, absolutely. I am a Brit, really. I mean when I go to Russia and I do have, maybe it's a romantic fantasy. You know us actors, we're very good at romantic fantasies.

There's something interesting about being really intimate and familiar with Israel, but still being American - that really thin piece of glass between me and my experiences.

Being Nigerian is a strong part of my identity. Being American is a strong part of my identity. And there are important parts of who I am that really have nothing to do with my national connection.

I feel totally French - I don't feel half-French because of my dual nationality. For me, dual nationality just means I don't deny my roots.

When you have parents that come from a country that you weren't raised in, you feel this weird sense of familiarity, like you've returned to something.

I'm more Filipino than I am German. I guess I shouldn't be ashamed to say that.

I feel that its important for me to be out there and to represent the face. At the same time, for me as an individual, I think the Asian-American face can be crowded with the American identity.

My feeling is that my body and all my things inside me - when I move, when I do everything - are Brazilian because my family is Brazilian, and my mother language is Brazilian Portuguese. But all the thinking in my life, all the treatment with people, I think I'm more from Spain. That's how I grew up.

I have always thought of myself as being Northern Irish because that's what I am.

Sometimes I struggle with being American.