Lewis H. Lapham Quotes

Every day I think about where I come from and I am still proud to be who I am: first, a Kabyle from La Castellane, then an Algerian from Marseille, and then a Frenchman.

I'm certainly proud to be Cuban American, and it's a fantastic opportunity for anybody - regardless of their ethnicity or nationality. It does carry a measure or pride to know where you're from and to know what your roots are.

Being Indian is not blood as much as it is culture.

I think of myself as being Jewish and Irish, despite the fact that I'm English.

The difference between a nation and a nationality is clear, but it is not always observed. Likeness between members is the essence of nationality, but the members of a nation may be very different. A nation may be composed of many nationalities, as some of the most successful nations are.

I'm very happy to be a foreigner in Japan, and I can't think of a more wonderful place to live, but at the same time, I would never want to be Japanese, because they are subject to stresses that I am not.

England is better only because I stand out there as 'unusual'.

I remember people saying: 'You look funny, your hair is so black, you have a flat nose,' but I didn't think of it being racism, and I still don't. But there was a sense of difference, of being an outsider.

I am not an African. I am an American.

The thing about being black and having a different accent, in the beginning, is that it makes you foreign.

Jews are the intensive form of any nationality whose language and customs they adopt.

The Africans know I'm not an African. I'm an American.

There's a big difference between race and culture. Because racially, I'm an Indian man. Culturally, not at all.

Ethnicity and tribe begin precisely where taxes and sovereignty end.

If, for 2,000 years, you dress up differently, believe in a different God, celebrate different holidays, and on top of it insist on telling everyone that you're completely different than them, ultimately they'll believe you.

All of the universe will be divided into two parts.

Citizenship and ethnicity can become, in certain contexts, restrictive, and perhaps that's one reason I was interested in people who feel compelled to mask their origins and thereby circumvent the restrictions.

Our immigrants joined a settler culture, Anglo-Saxon and Protestant, that demanded assimilation to its norms.

I'm a proud Londoner, a Brit, European, of Pakistani heritage, a Muslim - we all have multiple layers of identity - that's what makes us who we are.

I hope that when people see Asian women, they realize we are all different. A lot of time with Caucasian people, they just group us together as Asian. But even with different cities in China, people have different personalities... We look Asian, but we still look different. We don't look the same.

We live in a society that wants to label you with a color, sexuality, religion, or ethnicity. It divides us, but it also allows us to find pride in our identity.

The good thing about India, and the good thing about Melbourne, is that it's very, very hard on this planet of ours to find two places that are almost diametrically opposed.

I don't care where people come from, but others are fascinated about where I come from.

I consider myself half Spanish.

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