Graydon Carter Quotes

I would not call my family 'traditional Chinese.' We were more what I would term the Colonial Chinese.

Japan is very cosmopolitan - it values its origins, but a world view hovers above this narrow perspective. The interest of the Japanese in their folk culture is transcendental.

I'm not sure what's going on in Britain. I don't know what's going on in London. Because London is no longer an English city, and that's how they got the Olympics. I mean, they said, "We're the most cosmopolitan city on Earth," but it doesn't feel English.

We are Englishmen; that is one good fact.

Before doing 'Midnight's Children,' I didn't really have a chance to explore my Indian side. The Indian side of my heritage was always present, but it did not particularly define my identity. Being English was more an identity-defining status. I was born and brought up in London. Yes, my father is Parsi.

Third-generation Indians love maintaining their cultural traditions, but they can also go down the pub, shop till they drop, do whatever anyone else does.

I come from a specific area in Beirut where it's multicultural, and it's a culture that blends with multiple cultures - it's unbelievable lifestyle.

I was born in Lebanon and emigrated to the U.S. and went back. I'd been raised in a French school in Beirut. Lebanon is a peculiar place, so bicultural it goes along with you. There is a Western influence, an Eastern influence. Most people are fluctuating between those identities.

No, I'm not a French designer either. I'm from nowhere. I'm a European, old European is all I am.

By virtue of my traditions, and my community, I worked hard to ensure that I was accepted as part of the traditional family of America.

My family is a Jewish Iranian family, but I was born in Turkey and raised in Italy. So it's a very mixed background.

I guess I'm the last of the Cockneys.

I was brought up by the English side of my family, who are very repressed and working class. Absolutely lovely, but very English.

I grew up in China, but I live in the U.S. and I want my children to understand what's going on over there. They ask me sometimes, 'Are we Chinese or Australians?' My family are in L.A., New York and China, and they have the freedom to go back and forth, which is really, really nice.

I know my own heart to be entirely English.

In many countries today, moral and ethical norms are being reconsidered; national traditions, differences in nation and culture are being erased.

I've always felt very English.

I'm a first generation American. My mother is Italian and Russian and a lot of other things, and my father is Uruguayan. In fact, my mother's been married twice, and both men were Uruguayan. So I grew up in a very European/Latin American-influenced home.

We have our roots in country, and that's our foundation, but we pull from a lot.

I have a very strong identity that connects me to Argentina and to Latin America, but at the same time, I have a deep connection to the music from the United States and music from Europe, too.

I'm as proud to be Chinese as I am American.

Oh, I love labels, as long as they are numerous. I'm an American writer. I'm a Nigerian writer. I'm a Nigerian American writer. I'm an African writer. I'm a Yoruba writer. I'm an African American writer.

National cultures and heritages must compete for man's attention with the mind-absorbing advances of universal science.

Growing up where I grew up in Queens, you have the United Nations all around you.

I think it's important to be reminded that that's what this country is comprised of - people from other countries.