Blick Bassy Quotes

My mum and dad were speaking all the time about, 'In Sudan we do this,' and 'In Egypt we do that,' so I was very aware of cultural differences. I was confused growing up; it gave me a feeling of being an outsider watching others. But I think this is good for a writer.

The reason man does not experience his true cultural self is that until he experiences another self as valid he has little basis for validating his own self.

I grew up in Africa surrounded by a lot of culture. It's made me aware that the world is a big place.

We don't see the global citizen as someone with no identity, but rather someone who has confidence and is proud of his culture and history - and... open to the modern world.

I have a funny accent in every language.

A man who has not been in Italy, is always conscious of an inferiority.

Living in different cultures helped me work out who I was going to be, separate from where I came from.

The more you speak more languages, the more you understand about yourself.

The one thing I've learned, getting out to all those foreign and domestic locales, is that people in every country of the 'civilized' world wish - either secretly or openly - that they had the expressiveness, the flair, the I'm-so-glad-to-be-me spirit that black folks have made a part of American life.

I live with one foot in the sand and one in the snow. There's European egocentricity, and the African opposite. I normally say that my African experience has made me a better European.

We should never denigrate any other culture but rather help people to understand the relationship between their own culture and the dominant culture. When you understand another culture or language, it does not mean that you have to lose your own culture.

The best thing we can do is give students the tools for constructing their own identities - powerful new tools like African fractals - and then just get out of the way.

Travelers never think that they are the foreigners

I am very, very proud I am also Turkish and both of my parents are from Turkey. I was born in Germany and grew up there. By playing football, I learned my different cultures, and that is an advantage if you grow up as a person. You get a different view on certain things. I am very, very thankful I was able to pick the best from many cultures.

Although I don't examine myself in this respect, I would say, off the top of my head, that I've come to acknowledge my Czechness more as I get older.

I didn't realize how interesting the place I come from is until I left home and saw how other cultures handled things differently.

Being African didn't mean anything to me until later in my life.

As a youngster, my parents made me aware that all that was from the African Diaspora belonged to me. So I came in with Caribbean music, African music, Latin music, gospel music and blues.

Like the ancient Silk Road itself, 'The Sound of Silk' will make the foreign familiar while challenging long-held notions of identity and our place in the world.

I don't really know what feeling Japanese or Haitian or American is supposed to feel like. I just feel like me.

As a woman of colour, as a person who is a minority, I believe its important that other people know about my language and I don't necessarily have to explain. In the same way, when I read 19th-century literature and if I have to understand a Latin phrase or a French phrase, it is incumbent upon me to learn it.

Each language is a different lens from through which you view the world. So, learn as much as you can!

One thing I wish I'd been told in school is that my language is valid.

I've always said that the more ethnic you become, the more international your film becomes.

We all have to consciously make efforts to identify our roots and nurture them.