Mary Ellen Mark Quotes

Music is not supposed to be nationalist. It is supposed to surpass language barriers. It is about generations communicating with each other.

Art transcends cultural boundaries.

People from different parts of the world can respond to the same story if it says something to them about their own history and their own experience.

I always feel like music should be a universal language.

In terms of helping people understand and know each other a little better, music is universal - universal and transporting.

I try to explore, in terms of the life I know best, those things which are common to all cultures.

I think we all suffer the same pain, all feel the same happiness, and we all have the same emotions within us.

Music goes beyond nationalities - it's a language which you can understand in any country.

It's really important to have subjects that people all over the world are familiar with, and the Disney films are really great that way.

Music, many times, around the world, serves to help us understand other people without having to talk.

Music does bring people together. It allows us to experience the same emotions. People everywhere are the same in heart and spirit. No matter what language we speak, what color we are, the form of our politics or the expression of our love and our faith, music proves: We are the same.

Not that I ever felt the necessity of proving that all human beings suffer the same way, feel joy the same way, but it happened on my way - when I get close to these people, just by the simple intervention of translation I can actually reach them and ask them something, and their reaction is as I expected. I see that the relationship goes so smoothly, and I realize that cultural languages and specificities are nothing but simple obstacles that you can easily overcome. It's obvious that human beings are the same wherever they are.

If I make a speech, I need a translator. But music does not need a translation. People understand me through the sound. That I think is very important. This is just one planet, like one family.

Cinema is universal, beyond flags and borders and passports.

I really think the human experience is very similar for everyone; we're all doing slightly different versions of the same thing.

I have travelled all over the world and one thing that amazes me is that I can communicate with people. My story may be different but emotionally we are all the same.

Passion moves freely across borders, speaks every language, and flourishes in every culture. The movement of passion is the most gratifying satisfaction in any moviemaker's life.

Music is the most powerful form of communication in the world. It brings us all together. Even religion separates us, but a hit record unites us across religious beliefs, race, politics.

I think the most interesting parts of human experience might be the sparks that come from that sort of chipping flint of cultures rubbing against each other. And living on the border between Mexico and the U.S. for so many years gave me a lot of insight into that.

My varied listening palette is all-inclusive of all walks of life. No one individual is exempt from the human experience, so it is that intangible that is a universal truth. In that regard, I've had success in encapsulating something cosmic.

If people are given the chance to experience life in more than one country, they will hate a little less. It's not a miracle potion, but little by little you can solve problems in the basement of a country, not on the surface.

A lot of times when we work overseas we tend to put the experience of someone who lives overseas, a Chinese person or a Korean person or a Bosnian person, within the prism of an American life.

It's amazing when you're playing to a crowd who barely understands English but they're singing parts of your song back to you.

Literature transcends national boundaries, racial boundaries. It goes deep into the issues that concern all human beings. That is why, when people read Greek tragedy - it doesn't matter who reads it - they are still moved by it.

I couldn't live without music. I experienced things through music in different countries where you cannot speak the same language, but the music and the dance relates everything.