George Santayana Quotes

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 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.

It's a complicated issue, but I define myself as an American, primarily.

Writers, especially those of us with roots in other countries, are rarely left to ourselves. We are asked to declare our allegiances, or they are determined for us.

It's strange; when I was younger and people would ask, 'Where are you from?', I'd say, 'West Africa', which was odd because I'm obviously not African, but it was my home.

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.

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.

Men love their country, not because it is great, but because it is their own.

One of these days every person in Canada will be a Canadian.

America is the only nation in the world that does not define itself by its boundaries but by its creed.

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.

They've lived here now for more than half of their lives, and they raised a family here and now have grandchildren here... It has become their home, but at the same time, for my parents, I don't think either of them will ever consciously think, 'I am an American.'

I mean, Turkey is my country. You know, it's my flag. That is where we're raised... My family is born there. So that's why, like, it's tough to see that... your country don't want you.

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

During my childhood in Cyprus, the British talked about the Cypriots as if the Cypriots were outsiders in their own country. And even though I was born in Cyprus, my parents were American, and so I was an outsider in the land of my birth.

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

If we work on it, we can absolutely refuse any notion that suggests that after generations of contributing to this country, being a part of the bones and the marrow, that I'm supposed to be uncomfortable here.

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 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 American by birth, but I consider myself Canadian.

Go back home where you came from. This country is mine, and I intend to stay here and to raise this country full of grown people.

Remember that when you say "I will have non of this exile and this stranger for his face is not like my face and his speech is strange," you have denied America with that word.

When people ask me where my roots are, I look down at my feet, and I see the roots of my soul grasping the earth. They are here... in the Southwest... I still live in New Mexico.