Mika Quotes

Living in different cultures helped me work out who I was going to be, separate from where I came from.

I was born in Canada, and then my dad played pro soccer in England and then also on an island off the coast of Portugal. So we lived there for, like, 10 years. And then we moved to Minnesota. So I feel like I've experienced a lot of different cultures, and I'm still figuring out who I am.

Part of the reason that I moved to Los Angeles is that even though my mom introduced me to all kinds of music, I really wanted to work on having my own identify, on being who I am and doing what I do, and seeing how people responded.

I am very, very proud I am also Turkish and both of my parents are from Turkey. I was born in Germany and grew up there. By playing football, I learned my different cultures, and that is an advantage if you grow up as a person. You get a different view on certain things. I am very, very thankful I was able to pick the best from many cultures.

My identity started developing through the songs I was writing.

There is no such thing as a German, French, or Anglo-American Expressionism! There are only young people trying to find their bearings in the world.

My writing has been shaped by the three countries - Sri Lanka, the Philippines and England - I have lived in.

I don't think you lose culture because you act different cultures.

I exist in this hyphen. I'm an Indian-American-Muslim kid, but am I more Indian, or am I more American? What part of my identity am I?

I think every person either inherits or eventually makes up their own idea of what they are and who they are and what caused the world to be, and it seems to me that these stories of creation myth, adopted by different cultures - most of them are less insightful than the stories made up by individual poets and writers.

My mama is African American and from Wisconsin. My baba was born in Iran. My parents have stressed the idea of creating your own path, and creating your own identity is part of that. That's why embracing these two cultures is important to me.

I speak English. I grew up speaking Bengali. This is the normal, the known, the obvious composition of who I am. Then there's Italian, this strange, other component of me that I've just created. It was a creative process just to learn the language, never mind to start expressing myself in it.

When the band first started, it was so much about carving out some space for myself and our audience and our songs.

I don't relate to what is seen as 'Arab culture.' I relate to what I explore myself, what is around me.

I just grew up in the States, so I feel like I identify more with the American culture.

I grew up influenced by different cultures, sounds, feelings, emotions, and I want Premiere Classe to be a representation of that.

It took me a long time to find my own voice, even after I started making my own music.

I mean, London has shaped me as a person. My parents are Nigerian so I've had the luxury of blending different cultures together just through my everyday life.

As I was finding my musical style, I found my personal style as well, and moving from Germany to L.A. was part of that, raiding the secondhand stores in L.A. trying out different beauty themes, finding my love for huge lashes and big, long hair extensions.

What makes me myself rather than anyone else is the very fact that I am poised between two countries, two or three languages, and several cultural traditions. It is precisely this that defines my identity. Would I exist more authentically if I cut off a part of myself

I was born in Japan and raised in Japan, but those are the only things that make me Japanese, I've grown up reading books from all over.

I've written and translated my own poems from English to German. It's basically a summation of my identity as it stands now.

But what I'm very interested in, whether it's writing, whether it's hosting a show, whether it's cooking food, I'm just into the discussions of identity, culture and the politics of culture.

I'm unique - a cosmopolitan mix.

Sometimes I feel like I'm taking on a role when I'm writing a song, and it doesn't always have to be true. I'm not sitting in my room crying with my guitar, writing a slow solo about a depressing breakup; that's not me.