Mikhail Baryshnikov Quotes

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.

I come from a place where I find it hard to identify with a label.

I'm not stereotypically Canadian. I don't really follow hockey. I don't feel like anything other than myself, basically.

I feel so Scottish when I go abroad, and I'm so proud of it, but for me, it's not a political statement - I just happen to be Scottish.

It's like learning a language; you can't speak a language fluently until you find out who you are in that language, and that has as much to do with your body as it does with vocabulary and grammar.

I'm very, very Spanish. I have fat cheeks on both ends. I'm sitting on my Spanish part. And it's my heart, the way I am, the way I speak. It has nothing to do with the way I look.

Jews have had to carry around their own sense of self in a carpet bag and I think perhaps too much emphasis might be being put on nationality and on the other hand patriotism, that sort of thing.

I don't know whether it is fortunate or unfortunate, but I have no such thing as national pride. I don't feel proud that I am Iranian. I happen to be who I am.

I am Ecuadorian but people felt so safe passing me off as a skinny, blue-eyed white girl.

Being born in Jamaica, race was never an issue. It was always about the type of person I wanted to be, not the colour of my skin.

Identity in America is complicated but it's also simple: it's about whom you identify with and who identifies with you.

When we attach ourselves to national identities, then we enter into a cycle of conflict. I didn't choose where I was born or who to be or what people would call me.

I like all things natural, and I love being Indian. So clothes-wise, I love wearing Indian. Does my wearing a salwar kameez instead of a dress make me less of an actor, less of a person?

Anyone who knows anything about me knows that I am a very patriotic guy, in terms of my Scottishness and my roots.

It seems to me psychologically I'm a Canadian.

It's important that people understand who I am and where I come from and not just have it shaped by purely political discourse.

I know my own heart to be entirely English.

I've always felt very English.

Sometimes I have a very fleeting emotional dance with a fleeting phrase, like 'half-Mexican.'

I am an American in every fiber of my body and in every heartbeat.

I see myself as British, and I want to be celebrated by Britain.

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

Originally, I thought English was more my home. But Spanish is so much more romantic. I've had to learn new phrases. I've had to learn to be more secure about singing in Spanish. But I'm working on it.

I was born in this country. I serve this country every day in my work. I am loyal to this country. I shouldn’t have to state my loyalty. Unfortunately because of the color of my skin and the culture I come from there are some who suspect our loyalty.

Every one loves his country, his manners, his language, his wife, his children; not because they are the best in the World, but because they are absolutely his own, and he loves himself and his own labors in them.