Daniel Berrigan Quotes

I'm not talking about Russia in my music. I've never been to Russia. I'm not talking about Africa, Switzerland, China. I'm talking about me being American and growing up in a crazy world and helping to reflect all different sides of life.

Music is always a reflection of what's going on in the hearts and minds of the culture.

However, please allow me to say that the fundamental style of my writing has been to start from my personal matters and then to link it up with society, the state and the world.

Art is commenting on what's going on around you in your life.

A poem I write is not just about me; it is about national identity, not just regional but national, the history of people in relation to other people. I reach for these outward stories to make sense of my own life, and how my story intersects with a larger public history.

With 'The Chi,' it's me observing my own city and also pulling some things from themes I've dealt with in my life.

I'm Turkish-American; I was a freshman at Harvard in 1995 and 96. I did teach English in Hungary in the summer of 1996. I'm an autobiographical writer in the sense that whether in fiction or nonfiction, the issues and relationships and phenomena and problems I'm most interested in exploring are the ones I've experienced personally.

Until I was about 13, Manhattan had been a world seen from its edges.

All songs, all pieces of art, reflect the world that they were made in and the values of those artists and the hopes and aspirations of the people who listen to that music and who made that music.

My mother has lived abroad and I've grown up hearing her talk, so probably that's where I get this accent from.

This adoration of an artist as a lone genius is quite misled, I think, because they are very much part of their time and their community.

Fashion is not interesting unless it has some connection to something outside of that world. It's the same thing with any part of the arts: you can't just take pictures - you have to look at science, to listen to music; you have to be aware of the connections within the world. If you take something in an isolated box, it loses all significance.

It is important to remember that John Paul II was not an American or a Frenchman.

If you don't see culture in Los Angeles, you're simply not looking.

To be honest, I don't particularly see myself as an Icelandic artist. I'm a European artist.

My films are a personal reflection on the impact that the state - the system and the world - has on me.

Suddenly if I shift gears and go from Hyderabad to Bangalore, I might find myself out of place. It is a different route with a different set of audience.

I thought it would be a good idea to look at New York with this half-European, half-native eye and really do something to get back at this city that I thought really gave me a hard time when I grew up.

I was an Indian with zero sense of caste till I was 20. That's an unusual privilege but it came out of the fact that I was a middle-class Bengali.

When I lived in England my perception of what people thought of me was largely formed by the media.

All of my surroundings influence my songwriting. It's autobiographical, although I leave enough space so it's relatable.

I think my background, coming from Iran, which is a great country but is going through its share of troubles, really allows me to appreciate what we have here.

I think a lot of Africans in my generation, and especially those of us who have spent time overseas before coming back, are quite comfortable moving between the two worlds, though always with a lens of, 'What can we do to help our countries or regions?'

Roja,' 'Bombay' and 'Dil Se' weren't planned as political films. It was a phase India was going through and these things affected me and found their way into my work.

I notice I have both African and Belgian characteristics.