Romesh Gunesekera Quotes

My writing has been shaped by the three countries - Sri Lanka, the Philippines and England - I have lived in.

I am quite international. My background, born in Turkey. My family is a Jewish family from Iran, so I went from Turkey to Iran to Israel, and then grew up in Italy and ended up in U.S. for graduate school. So I tend to look at things from an international perspective, and I think that gives you a little bit of a broader view of what's going on.

I've always loved writing, and my heritage has been interesting, growing up in a bi-cultural family. My mother being Vietnamese and my father being French, it's like an East-West meeting in my house.

I'm interested in people who find themselves in places, either of their choosing or not, and who are forced to decide how best to live there. That feeling of both citizenship and exile, of always being an expatriate - with all the attendant problems and complications and delight.

I'm a first-generation American, so I had friends from several cultures while growing up, including Indian and Iranian friends.

I think that Mexican-American kids live in a global world. It's not even bi-, it's multi-. You know, for those of us who grew up with different countries on our block, different nationalities, you know, we moved into multiple worlds.

I am an American citizen born in Kuwait of Egyptian parents. I grew up in Great Britain, Malaysia, and Egypt and have lived in the United States since 1965, when I was seventeen.

My parents were born abroad. I was born in France, but I feel comfortable everywhere - I don't see the borders.

I am always asked, 'You grew up in Africa?' Every time I introduce a film, or I'm interviewed, 'You grew up in Africa?'

My mom is from Venezuela, and my dad is German and Japanese, and we lived in Brazil when I was a kid for a couple of years, and then I grew up on Long Island. I think all the traveling and all the nationalities put that stuff in my head. I was just around it a lot.

I love Europe even though I'm based in the U.S.

I'm a third-culture child. It's an interesting concept. Having an American father, a South American mother, born in England, grew up in Hong Kong, went to school in Europe - it makes me a third-culture child, which means you take on the culture of the place where you live. So I'm very adaptable.

I am an educator who thinks globally.

I think it's a very good thing to leave your country and look at it from afar.

I wanted to work with people from the world, with different minds and different visions.

Americans want to be exposed to the opportunities that a changing world can offer.

Well, I grew up between Holland and Israel and then moved to France when I was eleven.

When I was growing up, Forest Park was full of integrated families. It was amazing. One my best friends was Vietnamese. Another one was half-Mexican, half-black. Another one was from Colombia. Another one was born in the U.S., but his mom was from Germany and spoke with a German accent. So we all had multiple identities.

We're from Rockford, Illinois, but we've always thought international.

I saw an advertisement to work for a Swedish institute in Karachi in Pakistan. I had just been offered a permanent assignment, teaching in Oulu. But I felt, 'My God, I am not going to stay here forever.' You know why? Because I was following international events.

II grew up in Australia, but I'm not from there originally. Like, my dad's South American, so I know what that's like to grow up in a culture that's not your own.

When Brian told me he grew up in New Mexico, I told him I thought it is cool that people from other countries play football. He corrected me on my geography and agreed to sit down with me anyway.

Living in Germany Africanised me.

My family is a Jewish Iranian family, but I was born in Turkey and raised in Italy. So it's a very mixed background.

The world is getting more connected through technology and travel. Cuisines are evolving. Some people are scared of globalization, but I think people will always take pride in cultural heritage.