Kayvan Novak Quotes

My grandfather was a chef for a Baron in Sicily before he came to America. I grew up with him. I used to do my homework at one end of the kitchen table while he cooked at the other end.

I can't hide where I grew up or the flavors I grew up on.

As we see dislocation and disruption in certain parts of the country, from rural areas to my home in the industrial Midwest, and in the economy, this leads to a kind of disorientation and loss of community and identity. That void can be filled through constructive and positive things, like community involvement or family.

As a child growing up in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, my connection to my Indian roots came from summer visits to New Delhi where my grandparents lived.

Especially in America, when you move away from home, sometimes you get disconnected with your grandparents, your friends you grew up with.

If you grow up with traditions in your family, it's always nice to be able to get home and have those moments.

My parents eventually moved back to Brazil, so since then, it has been me and my wife, although they are always involved.

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.

Being Latina, I'm super close with my family. I love them, and I love spending time with them. I love being at my grandma's house and eating her food.

It really upsets me that the media insists on turning 'Do the Right Thing' or 'Boyz N the Hood' into 'black films.' They are American films. They may open the window on the black experience, but they had things to say to everybody. That's why they were so successful.

My daughter is married here in Patiala and I have shared a bond with Punjabi as a language.

I spent my summers in a war zone because my parents were afraid that if we didn't go back to Palestine every single summer, we'd grow up to be Madonna.

I'm from Dagestan, I'm born in Dagestan, and Dagestan is a different level for people living a tough life, people living in the mountains.

I am extremely close to my grandma. Growing up, she would always do my hair; she was always the one who would make me chocolate milk or rice when I came home.

I have always lived abroad, but inside my family, we always speak in Bosnian and preserve all the Bosnian traditions. So it's always inside me, always in my heart.

What's normal life for the majority people of America, the liberal press thinks is like, 'Oh my gosh.' We don't live in that little, weird, bizarre vacuum of San Francisco.

Growing up in Oxnard you're a Cowboys fan, bro. I remember when I was like six, seven years old my cousin gave me a sweatshirt that said 'Cowboys' on it and ever since then I said I'm going to support the Cowboys.

I know when my father travelled 5,000 miles to make his home in Ireland, I doubt he ever dreamed that his son would one day grow up to be its leader.

My mom, who left Iran in 1976, steeped us in the smells, tastes, and traditions of Persian cuisine.

I was born and raised in Orlando, where the economy and culture has been powerfully shaped by tourism, and so I've long been interested in how we narrate the places we visit, how the gap between what we see and what we know manifests when we're traveling.

When you have parents that come from a country that you weren't raised in, you feel this weird sense of familiarity, like you've returned to something.

In the press, there's this desire for the black audience to be this monolithic thing that always responds to the same stars. That's a really reductive way of looking at the black audience.

The value of a loving family cannot be understated.

My mom is Italian, and her whole family still lives in Italy. My dad is Australian, and his family lives in Australia, so we were raised there.

I'm very close to my parents and my grandma.