Claire Messud Quotes

Everyone is so estranged; no one is rooted. That's what I like to write about more than anything else. Everything being so mixed up. Racially mixed up, people moving from place to place, everything shifting.

I'm used to traveling. I'm used to being in different areas of the world. Home is where my suitcase lands.

L.A.'s become so cosmopolitan in its casting and also in its world view.

I'm one of the most adaptable guys I know in as much as travelling is my favourite thing to do in life. With every place I go, I try to stay there long enough to do it justice, long enough so that I can at least imagine what it would be like to live there. Once I imagine that, then it's OK for me to return home.

I change so many houses and places where I live; I change them like I change socks. I don't have this absolute, kind of, how you say, attachment. My brother, if he just has to go to holiday to sleep in different bed, for him it is a disaster. I can sleep under this table or in a five-star hotel; I don't care.

I enjoy it; my experiences abroad have taught me the importance of an open mind and have given me a willingness to wander off the beaten path - not only to keep life interesting, but also to understand in a meaningful way that things do not look the same from every vantage point.

A lot of the attitude I used to have about being from New York when I was younger just disappeared when I started to the rest of the world.

We have never wrapped ourselves up in our own world thinking we are the only people who know what is doing. We listen to other things and see what we would like and what would suit us.

I love being a foreigner.

I encourage people to be floaters: don't stay in one group for too long.

I see myself as a transient, not an immigrant.

Home is wherever I go.

I exult in the fact I can see everywhere with a flexible eye; the very notion of home is foreign to me, as the state of foreignness is the closest thing I know to home.

If I'm an advocate for anything, it's to move. As far as you can, as much as you can. Across the ocean, or simply across the river. The extent to which you can walk in someone else's shoes or at least eat their food, it's a plus for everybody. Open your mind, get up off the couch, move.

I'm just an entertainer, man. I don't like to pigeonhole myself to anything. I love to do it all.

People ask if I miss it, but they don't understand that American culture is so ubiquitous that there's nothing to miss. I don't see myself moving back. It's not that I hate the United States. I just always thought it would be a shame not to live in a foreign country.

I'm unique - a cosmopolitan mix.

When you get to see the world, it changes you. You realise that there are all kinds of people out there.

We were constantly moving to different countries and adjusting to new things. It was such a free feeling. I'm glad I didn't have a traditional upbringing.

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

You know, the more you can meet people from different walks of life, the better it is for you. I think the more you can create situations and experiences that give you new perspective, the better.

It's great to be able to have your feet in both worlds. I wouldn't want to be just stuck in one or the other.

I don't know what 'home' or 'abroad' is any more.

I have a multicultural background, so I tend to have an open mind about things, and I find other cultures interesting.

You can have more than one home. You can carry your roots with you, and decide where they grow.