Harry Belafonte Quotes

Music was always heavily involved with my spirit. My entire family is Jamaican. It's nothing but reggae music and those kinds of vibes.

My mother came from an Irish family of 11 kids and, of course, had a sister who was a nun, so I spent time at a convent and with an aunt and uncle who lived in New York and took me to the theater.

That other saying, I'm a part of all that I have met, I think that would have to begin with my wonderful parents back in Atlanta when I was a youngster five years old I was tongue tied.

I grew up until I was seven in Jamaica with my grandmother, who I still think of as the greatest person I have known in my life.

A lot of things come down to your roots and how you're brought up.

My mom is American, so I was raised in her household in my formative years.

When I was a kid, my grandparents were Greek immigrants on my father's side. My grandfather used to read me Greek myths, in which there are a great many goddesses and stories of strong women. And I was entranced by them. Then I started reading science fiction very young, and I loved it.

My grandfather was a history teacher, one reason the subject has been an integral part of my life.

My passion is from my mom. She was passionate about leaving Germany and coming to America and making a life for her and her family. My father - discipline, a chain of command, it works this way.

My mother is a German who was brought up in the U.K. So, there is so much cross-cultural exposure I had as a child. But Mumbai is my city.

There's some really good stuff in the way I was brought up. There's some really rubbish stuff as well.

My mom was born in Jamaica and has always been around a community of black people, so she encouraged me to get out and act. My dad, on the other hand, is from suburban Massachusetts, so he had not been around a lot of black people.

Even with my family, I feel sort of 'other.' I'm the only one of my siblings who wasn't born in Jamaica. For a long time, I didn't feel very connected to Jamaican culture, but because I was raised so heavily with that cultural influence, I realized that my inner monologue is a Jamaican woman.

I have a massive Samoan family. And the Samoan culture has always played a massive part of my life. I've got hundreds of family on my dad's side that live in Samoa and in New Zealand. I've just been surrounded by the culture ever since I was a kid.

The problems in the Russian novel are quite similar to the problems of Turkish nationalism and Turkish culture, which was something that I grew up thinking didn't affect me very much because my parents didn't really talk about it.

My family, my background... it just parallels really nicely with a lot of social and cultural movements.

My mom spent like a decade of her life living in Paris, and I grew up listening to a lot of French music as well as Arabic music.

My mother is a Telugu, so I have been familiar with the language since childhood.

I come from a family of linguists. My maternal grandparents have been authors and translators.

Growing up in an Ethiopian household allowed me to feel like I had an audience before I had an audience.

Of course, I have been influenced by my Punjabi and Hariyanvi roots.

I don't expect to ever put my family background to rest but I do expect to be taken seriously as a scholar, a writer and a Latin Americanist on my own terms, not defined through my parents and their history or politics.

My mother is Russian and father Nepalese, so we always had a chess board at home. Chess is part of the culture in both Russia and Nepal.

I learn from my family. And it's not like I learn from them on the sets only.

My mother always tried to keep a little bit of British culture in our family. We'd drink tea all the time!