Cultural Connections Quotes

Almost any American can connect on some level to a family background of having come across some ocean. They say, 'My great-grandparents came from wherever... this is why we have this last name, why we do this thing at Christmas.' All the details get watered down but don't quite disappear.

When people love you for your cultural contributions, geographical boundaries become nonexistent.

You found an uncle on one side and a nephew on the other, a cousin here and a cousin there. Besides it's still true today. I'll tell you something else. There was a time when even two ambassadors to Switzerland, the one from India and the one from Pakistan, were two blood brothers. Oh, the Partition imposed on us by the British was so unnatural!

One can't deny what has happened to us in the past. The secret is to enjoy and be proud of the music we've created and the people with whom we have been linked. It's all a long chain of involvement in the world, and we are proud to be yet another link in this chain.

I always say, 'Hip-hop takes me everywhere.' It's crazy when I step onstage, and people might not speak much English, but they know every word to your songs. It's kind of freaky, but it's really cool.

Pop music has greater power to change people and to affect people because it's a universal language. You don't have to understand music to understand the power of a pop song.

Hip-hop, pop, dance - the common point is melancholy. That's international, and I like this word because it's not only about sadness or happiness - it's both at the same time. And that's human, and that's life.

We all have to consciously make efforts to identify our roots and nurture them.

Although I didn't spend much time in New Zealand at all, I feel really privileged to have that Maori blood and link to my past. I got my tattoo out of respect to that.

Regardless of what we look like on the outside, genetically, on the inside, everyone is an African.

The pride I feel in representing my people, no matter where I am, is never going to diminish. I could be in Hong Kong, Singapore, Egypt or even Las Vegas, I'll always be representing my people.

When people ask me where my roots are, I look down at my feet, and I see the roots of my soul grasping the earth. They are here... in the Southwest... I still live in New Mexico.

I think a lot of people, even if you're not Asian, you go to your place of origin where your family comes from, and you get this sense of, 'Wow - people look like me and talk like me and treat me like their son in the stores and like a cousin in the restaurants.'

The Indians seemed to be living in a place and in a way that was of immense importance to me. So I associate learning to read - English, oddly enough - with wanting to know about Indians. I'm still growing into it. I've never outgrown that.

Obviously, my Indigenous culture is very special to me.

I think the name of the show, 'This American Life' - we named it that just because it seemed like it made the thing feel big. But we don't think about whether it's an American story or not. We happen to be Americans. I think for the stories to work, they have to be universal.

When I meet fans who relate to Korean films and dramas even though they don't understand the language or the culture, and when they talk about studying Korean and traveling to Korea because of those films and dramas, I think to myself that this is the true force of the Hallyu wave.

There are very close ties between the Jewish and Mormon people.

I feel so much more connected with my Asian side than I do with my British side - of course, I'm proud of my British side.

Language, identity, place, home: these are all of a piece - just different elements of belonging and not-belonging.

Music is the great equalizer.

Common experience is the gold reserve which confers an exchange value on the currency which words are; without this reserve of shared experiences, all our pronouncements are checks drawn on insufficient funds.

I have never felt any ethnic connection between the Greeks and me other than how hairy I am.

I love the fact that Inuit poetry may resonate with me as much as Irish.

Barack Obama embraced hip-hop, man. That's the way he got through to kids.