William Boyd Quotes

I want to clear this once and for all. I was born in Hong Kong. I grew up in Japan and China. London is not home for me. I was there only for three years before I moved to India, but that's probably why I am connected with it. London is definitely not the place I consider my home. It's India that I consider home.

I feel at home in a lot of places, but I am truly an African-American.

I was born in Peru, and we moved to Scotland when I was 15, but I've not lived here for a long time. But I would always say that I am Scottish, and Scotland is as close to a home as I have.

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.

Language, identity, place, home: these are all of a piece - just different elements of belonging and not-belonging.

I'm fully English, but Portugal is my home.

When people ask me where I'm from, I say I'm from the Sudan. But when they ask what my hometown is, I say London. It's where I lived, and it's where my whole family lived.

I'm certainly proud to be Cuban American, and it's a fantastic opportunity for anybody - regardless of their ethnicity or nationality. It does carry a measure or pride to know where you're from and to know what your roots are.

I think of myself as being Jewish and Irish, despite the fact that I'm English.

I'll always be Chinese first. It probably isn't politically correct to say or something that the majority understands; I can change my shoes, I can swap my passport, but, I'll always have this face.

I was born in India - but never really lived there.

I've always been really interested in how people's identities are shaped by where they come from and how they want to get away from where they come from.

I'm living in California but I have a place that is mine in Chile and I belong there. I am no longer an exile.

There's a big difference between race and culture. Because racially, I'm an Indian man. Culturally, not at all.

No matter where I go or what title I may achieve, I will always be the son of exiles.

A lot of people say I'm not Mexican because I don't speak a lot of Spanish or am there a lot, but the United States is where it's at. Mexico's in my blood, in my DNA. It's in my kids' DNA.

It's possible that Israel will be my second home, but it won't be my only home.

In America, we all come from somewhere else, and we carry along some dream myth of home: a notion that something - our point of origin, our roots, the home country - is out there.

I may be brown on the outside, but on the inside, I'm all American.

Sometimes people say to me, 'Ah, you're not really Spanish; you're British.'

I grew up in America - I was born and raised in Texas. I might look different, but at the same time, I'm pretty American.

I was born in England, but India is the only place I feel at home.

I'm about as Chinese as Herbert Hoover.

I look Asian. I need to go to Japan.

I'm very aware of my own background. I'm Irish, French, and then a little bit of everything else thrown in, ranging from German to Native American. We're talking about tiny drops of blood.