Masha Gessen Quotes

I moved away when I was young, when I was about 19. I'd literally come from an area with dirt roads and stuff like that, right to the centre of a city of about five million people. It's been great. I'm based in New York, and every day, it's amazing.

It wasn't easy for me to find my feet when I first arrived in Europe.

Moving to a new country is always difficult, but the fact my dad and my sister came to live with me was a huge help. That made things easier.

I came to New York in 1986. My father didn't think it was a good idea. I didn't know how I found it, but I went to Hunter College. I had no money and I couldn't speak English.

Going abroad to study as a teenager, and joining the United Nations at 22, confirmed my ease with the world of the frequent flyer. I saw the average airport terminal as a familiar haven, like a friend's sitting room. But 9/11 changed all that.

My life changed incredibly when I moved from Holland to England.

An adolescent is somebody who is in between things. A teenager is somebody who's kind of permanently there. And so living with them through the various teenage hopes and sorrows and joys was curiously enough a maturing experience for me.

We moved to Australia for two years though and that was a little bit tough trying to fit in.

I did take a huge leap moving countries. People have no idea how huge it is to relocate overseas. Finding your new life alone is enormous, and then starting a new career in Hollywood is so big.

I became more interested in the idea of being an immigrant and particularly of being in a country you're not familiar with. And so I began reading migrants' stories. The fact that my father is Chinese - he emigrated from Malaysia when he was about 20 - may have had some bearing on my attraction to the subject.

It's not a lighthearted decision to change your language, your country, your citizenship, and come to a world where you don't know anybody, to leave a place where you've had opportunities to build friendships from childhood. That's quite a big decision to make.

As an immigrant, I learned by watching other people.

Leaving home early is always complicated. But when I arrived in Germany, I encountered an incredible structure built by the company that takes care of my career. They did not leave me wanting for anything. The most complicated thing was really the language. Otherwise, everything was taken care of.

It was a village where I come from, obviously a lot smaller than London, so the support was unreal and close by. To come away to a new challenge, a new level, knowing that I was going to have to step up massively - not having those people around me was a test.

As a young boy in a new country, you had to make new friends, and that was really difficult.

It is not always easy to change country.

Coming from the Philippines to the U.S. did shape me in that it gave me perseverance.

I certainly don't miss Italy, as I am happy in Canada and have no intention of returning.

I've grown up a lot in England.

I've gotten used to being a foreigner.

Once I got to the U.S., and I realized we weren't going to go back to Britain, I was ready to commit to starting a bigger life here.

Sure, it was difficult when I first came, but I am very happy to be here, in England.

I think that when you emigrate, when everything you took for granted disappears, it's a kind of loss of innocence. When you're a kid, the world as you know it is just there. Suddenly, you emigrate and that's no longer the case. It's a break in reality that parachutes you into adulthood.

Some days I think I would definitely like to move abroad but then, other days, I think I don't fancy it at all.

Life in England was a bit difficult. It is not easy for a South American. Some people get on fine, and for others, it is harder to adapt.