Lisa Lutz Quotes

You may not know it, but I was adopted as a baby by my wonderful parents, Allan and Margaret Atkins of Cumberland Gap, Tenn.

I've always known I was adopted.

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

Roots are not in landscape or a country, or a people, they are inside you.

Returning to your family and where you came from, and your history... this is what makes you strong. It's not looking out that's going to do that - it's looking in.

I'm told I was born in Canada, but I was adopted, and I grew up in Maine and Massachusetts.

Kunta Kinte's strength derives from the knowledge of where he comes from, but it struck me that I don't know where I come from. I understand that my last name is Kirby, that I was born in London, third-generation Jamaican, and at some point along the line, that name was changed. I didn't know my history past my grandparents.

I've had a lot of different lives. I was adopted, I grew up in Nebraska, and then I went to Northwestern... Then I had this really extraordinary, different life than my parents.

Getting to know someone else involves curiosity about where they have come from, who they are.

I really appreciate the British part of my family.

We all need a past - that's where our sense of identity comes from.

I know my father and my mother, but beyond that I cannot go. My ancestry is blurred.

I've always been fascinated by family ancestry.

Though born in Nova Scotia, I am of almost pure New England descent.

It's very strange that most people don't care if their knowledge of their family history only goes back three generations.

My own sense of family, where I came from and what I made for myself is an important part of my life.

My sister is Korean and my parents adopted her about three years before I was born and that is how I grew up.

My parents have always been very concerned of making sure we know who we are and where we come from. I have to give them credit for that. Knowing your roots is quite important.

I love many places to which I have no connection, but identifying an ancestor, or someone I think is an ancestor, has taken me to places I'd never have gone to otherwise.

I am fighting royalty. I have gypsy kings on both sides of the family.

How do we know who we are if we don’t know where we’ve been?

You can properly call him a son of anything you please.

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.

People like to trace their ancestry.

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