I am a village boy, and Amsterdam for me was always the big town.
The world is in America. In Italy is only Italy. France is full of France. Germany is full of Germany. In a continent that contains the entire world, contradictions are, of course, constantly arising.
I saw New York differently after being in Paris for a few years.
Living in New York, you get a lot of confidence; when I go back to Michigan, I realise how obnoxious and demanding and straightforward I am.
I'm a New Yorker now, and believe me, there's no comparison between the Big Apple and Kalamazoo, no similarity at all. New York City's hectic, always in fast-forward, and Kalamazoo's more laid-back, smaller, slower.
Only one thing is certain: every time I return to New York from Nashville, I walk down the streets with a silly grin, just smiling at everyone I see and, more often than not, receiving a suspicious glance in return... but honestly, I wouldn't have it any other way, y'all!
I grew up half in South Central and half in the San Fernando valley.
To grow up five miles outside of the greatest city in the world is a bizarre experience.
Now when I look back to the Guildford of that time, it seems far more exotic to me than Nagasaki.
The best reason for exposing oneself to foreign ways is to generate a sense of vitality and awareness - an interest in life which can come only when one lives through the shock of contrast and difference.
My sisters and I were fortunate to travel through Asia and Europe at very young ages. We confronted extraordinary beauty in Athens and unspeakable poverty in India.
I've actually enjoyed my time in L.A. more than a New Yorker is supposed to.
I love New York. I love L.A. too. I love both places.
Europe is merely powerful; India is beautiful.
I relax by catching up with my friends and family. When I am at home in Ibiza, I find the contrast of living on a divided island relaxing - with beauty and tranquillity in the north and a sense of fun, shallowness and celebration in the south.
When I went to New York, I was exposed to things I definitely wasn't exposed to in South Jersey and Pitman.
I love Baltimore, I miss the people, but I think L.A. is way more chill.
Well, in Bradford I could say I was brought up in Bradford and Hollywood.
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.
Cultural comparisons are good because they can tell you about what's similar, but also sometimes they make it easier to see obvious differences.
The French, who love their dogs, sometimes eat their horses. The Spanish, who love their horses, sometimes eat their cows. The Indians, who love their cows, sometimes eat their dogs.
Liverpool and London are two places I looked upon as home.
It's a small city where I have a lot of time to think. The orchestra and I have had a chance to connect very well in this time. I think of all the millions of people in Los Angles. There aren't that many millions of people in all of Sweden.
I love Chicago. I love the big city. But, remember, I come from a town, Lovington, N.M., that only has 8,000 people.
Liverpool is off the side of the known universe, and it always was. New York is the only other place comparable.
