I jumped off a bridge in Italy, is that culturally insensitive? Is saying 'mamma mia' culturally insensitive?
Back in 1993, I was studying in Delhi, and I had a girlfriend. I had never touched a girl before that in my entire life. One day, I decided to go out with her to a garden. We were sitting beside each other, and I just glanced around to see if anyone was looking at us, and I put my hand over hers. I thought love started in this way.
I myself am not religious, but yes, I certainly grew up in a very Catholic environment.
Pop culture is the scaffold we all carry around with us.
One thing I must tell you. Idolatry in India does not mean anything horrible. It is not the mother of harlots.
A lot of times, when people say hip-hop, they don't know what they're talking about. They just think of the rappers. When you talk about hip-hop, you're talking about the whole culture and movement. You have to take the whole culture for what it is.
Coming from where I came from, the Midwest, in the era I was born, the '30s, movies were glorious fun - Bette Davis dying or whatever. But whatever they were, they were not serious.
In English, there is one word for sister. In Chinese, there are two separate words, for elder and younger sister. This is actually a translation problem because if you see the word sister, you don't know how to translate it to Chinese because you don't know if it's an elder sister or younger.
Art is always in the eyes of the beholder. Only posterity has the right to point out our mistakes.
I think when religions such as Hinduism and Buddhism - as well as Christianity and Judaism - were founded, at that time societies were generally male-dominated. So, therefore this social notion also influenced religion.
Everybody uses pop culture as a shorthand.
All songs, all pieces of art, reflect the world that they were made in and the values of those artists and the hopes and aspirations of the people who listen to that music and who made that music.
I think it's quite good to be famous in Estonia - much easier than in the U.S.
And it's true, you hear things in Damascus and, after a few hours, the human double-take stops operating.
That which an age considers evil is usually an unseasonable echo of what was formerly considered good - the atavism of an old ideal.
I've been everywhere man. I'm from L.A., though.
Latin American culture is conservative, and the rural areas are tremendously conservative. I don't believe that's just a Chilean thing.
How absurd these critics must seem to me, who in their modern wantonness have become so ingenious. They want to interpret my Tannhauser as specifically Christian and impute to him a tendency to impotent glorification!
I don’t think America really has a left wing. The American left wing would fit very comfortably in the center or center right of most European political spectrums.
In brief, Western democracy, as other political models, is not exportable to all regions of the world.
Human rights are not the preserve of Western activists: The definition must extend to encompass the right to the dignified life; the right to send your kids to school, for that child to get health care, for access for greater prosperity for generations to come and to have a say in the destiny of your community and country. Under that definition, Rwanda has nothing to learn from advocacy groups who think they own the copyright on what constitutes human rights under all conditions in every corner of the world.
Words are things, but things which mean. We cannot do away with meaning without doing away with signs, that is, with language itself. Moreover, we would have to do away with the universe. All the things man touches are impregnated with meaning.
I don't do Jewish stuff because I don't want people to be left out. If I mention the Torah in Alabama, it's not going to go down that well. I used to do some Jewish jokes because when I started, I used to play lots of Jewish country clubs.
Every age has its own outlook. It is specially good at seeing certain truths and specially liable to make certain mistakes. We all, therefore, need the books that will correct the characteristic mistake of our own period. And that means the old books.
I deal with cultural issues whether they be in the Middle East, Far East, the Orient or the West. You broach questions in the context of their culture and then present Christian answers.
