Dara Khosrowshahi Quotes

My parents came from Russia and suddenly they wound up in Boston, Massachusetts, Brookline, Massachusetts and they felt the sun rose and set on Franklin Delano Roosevelt's backside because he meant so much to them. This was freedom. This was something totally different from the Russia they had left.

America looked like the land of the future, separated by an ocean from the misfortunes, follies, and crimes of Europe.

With every generation comes a new wave of hopefuls: small-town escapees, European refugees, disaffected Londoners.

I was the child of refugees.

I left Cambodia when I was 12 or 13. I didn't really escape, but I needed to go away.

My parents left Germany in a very, very precarious way.

Every year, thousands of immigrants, asylum seekers and migrants assume great hardships to find safety in America. They choose our country because they see the United States as a land of justice, as a place of safety, and a beacon of hope.

So when I say that I am a refugee, you must understand that there is no refuge.

My grandfather didn't come to Canada for his own sake. He didn't leave behind his family to cross the Atlantic and be knocked to the canvas. He came here so that his son, my father, would have a better life.

I can't tell you how many times I get into a taxicab in New York or Los Angeles, and I'm talking to somebody who is a recent immigrant who was a doctor or lawyer or engineer or professor in the country they just came from. They're starting over again in life, and I think the majority of people out there can relate to that.

I knew I'd been given another chance, another life in Australia by my parents, so I didn't want to hurt them.

I know I got to do something that's one in a million, to escape a refugee camp, to come to this country and have so many doors open for me. So I want to go back and make a difference and give motivation or hope to all the kids that never got to leave or have the privilege that I did.

I'm out of Russia and have no plans to go back.

We went through tough times when I was very young and I'm so infinitely grateful to my parents. Their journey began during the civil war in Liberia and we came to Canada via Ghana. I'm in the happy situation where I can say I can enjoy every single day of my life.

I defected to South Korea in search of freedom of speech and movement. I had longed to put my feet on this soil, even in my dreams.

Coming to Houston was an opportunity that I couldn't pass up.

My family had to live in Vienna for three months, then in Italy for another nine, while we waited for refugee status.

School was my sanctuary.

In my early 20s, living in a communist regime in Romania, success to me simply meant leaving and coming to America.

I was protected from a lot of publicity and politics of life.

I had the luck with Germany. If they hadn't allowed us to come in I don't know where we would've gone or where we could go. I never ask about that. My mum said: 'Germany is our second home' and it's true. Germany gave us their open hands.

We didn't have shoes until we came over to America.

I wanted a future outside my hometown.

Every day, I wish there was a moment when I could go back to my house and my land.

There is something very appealing about moving to a faraway place.