Cultural Expectation Quotes

Bach and Beethoven, all of them, they had to write something to please the upper structure, those with money and power.

In my school days, everyone thought I'm too tall for a Chinese girl.

It's a terrible thing for a book, when you feel like you're supposed to like it.

I think in many ways the problem that my writing would have with an American reviewer is that Americans find difficulty very hard to take. They are inevitably looking for a happy ending.

I wish this president would learn to be an American

There is a deep sadness to American poverty, greater than the sadness of any other kind. It's because America has such an ideology of success.

I was terrified of being on camera. I was worried that whatever I would say, people would assume I'm speaking for every Muslim, every Pakistani, or every Middle Eastern person. That's a lot of pressure. But it also got me excited about what could be done, because I am a representative for people who are underrepresented.

People expect me to be that guy. But I'm more east London boy than east Baltimore.

I really didn't want to be boxed into becoming a certain kind of film-maker - becoming the Maori story film-maker because I had made those short films.

I'm not the standard Asian girl.

I remember how, when I lived in Paris, there was a McDonald's, and I'd always see Americans eating there and think, 'Why do they come all the way to Paris and eat at McDonald's?'

After 'Gangs,' people thought that I couldn't speak a sentence in English or that I don't wear jeans or, you know, I am a city girl.

One thing that drives me crazy is when people tell me that I sound good for an athlete. They be like, 'You don't sound like you from Harlem.'

You cannot come to a Nigerian restaurant without having pepper soup.

… the invariable Oriental custom of demanding more than is expected

Being Asian where you're supposed to be more quiet and softer and I was always getting reprimanded for laughing to loud or speaking to loudly.

I don't really want the kind of Englishness that I have represented.

Every race gets the religion it deserves, and only as policemen, pugilists, and priests have they succeeded, here and there a successful lawyer, but nothing more serious.

Somebody told me once I wasn't Latin enough, and that made me laugh.

Americans always talk about family love being unconditional, and I realized that I didn't feel that way.

When I was born, some of our relatives came to our house and told my mother, 'Don't worry, next time you will have a son.'

The problem with being Irish... is having 'Riverdance' on your back. It's a burden at times.

I often make a joke of my parents, because I come from a Nigerian background and there's a stereotype in the Nigerian community that all of us are going to be doctors and lawyers, and that's just how it is. But upon reflection, my parents were always really supportive of me doing music.

I‘ve said it once and I will say it again, why can‘t everyone just speak English? The Americans give it a bit of a go — why can‘t other nations?

I find being Irish quite a wearing thing. It takes so much work because it is a social construction. People think you are going to be this, this, and this.