Melissa George Quotes

My mum and dad were speaking all the time about, 'In Sudan we do this,' and 'In Egypt we do that,' so I was very aware of cultural differences. I was confused growing up; it gave me a feeling of being an outsider watching others. But I think this is good for a writer.

They're strange, the Aussies. Because if they like you, they say, 'Oh, he's an Aussie.' And I keep saying, 'I'm not, I'm from Preston.' There's nothing Australian about me. Don't start claiming me just because I've got a job over here.

When I go to Brazil, I feel like an American, and in the U.S., I always notice the traits that make me Brazilian.

You experience other cultures to give you a kind of shock that makes you look at your own culture. You appreciate it more as a result of being out of it, but you also realise there are some things lacking in your culture.

Americans are hidden dragons to me.

At the beginning of my career as a writer, I felt I knew nothing of Chinese culture. I was writing about emotional confusion with my mother related to our different beliefs. Hers was based in family history, which I didn't know anything about. I always felt hesitant in talking about Chinese culture and American culture.

I love the States and their attitudes about entertainment.

I am a Londoner and I love my home. There are many things about this country which drive me crazy, but when I am in America, I feel wrong there.

Some Russian ballet master woman said there's no culture in America, but if you look you can find interesting stuff in this country, don't you think?

Baldwin thought Europe was a bore, and Chamberlain thought it was only a greater Birmingham.

The only time I used to feel like an outsider was when I first went to India.

The first condition of understanding a foreign country is to smell it.

When I go home to England, my friends all make fun of me for sounding American.

I haven't met everyone from all different cultures, but I do know Aussies are very tough.

I was a devil in other countries, and I was a little devil in America, too.

Everyone thinks England and America are the same, as we have the same language, but I felt like an alien as an English person living in America.

China was the first time I truly felt like an outsider. I fell in love with the process of trying to become intimate with the culture.

I don't really have that much contact with Americans. I mean, I see the oddest things on the Internet, I suppose. And I've got a couple of American friends, but they are Anglophiles anyway because they've decided to come live here.

A familiar question for Australians is how much we are a product of our circumstances, and how much we are what we have made ourselves to be. In truth, by the act of migration the country was made: by that voluntary act and by the emigrants' ambitions it was built.

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.

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.

I live in Australia, and I am Australian, and because I grew up in an era where we didn't have a film industry, and now we do, it's just really exciting for me to be able to say that I work in my own culture in a medium that I find fascinating.

I didn't realize how interesting the place I come from is until I left home and saw how other cultures handled things differently.

I always say the diversity, and culture is the one thing I love the most about the U.S. How you can travel across one borderline and you end up with this whole new set of people that I find super-interesting and great on tour.

Despite having an Indian grandmother and a Nepalese father, I have never been to India before. I have been to Nepal a couple of times, which isn't that far.