Quotes About Belonging

Being attracted to my own sex was as much part of who I was as being short or blonde or drawn to the library, but I was made to grow up feeling 'other.' Most books, films - even advertisements - didn't reflect how I felt, and I often watched the world from the outside.

People who don't see themselves reflected in an institution tend not to associate themselves with those institutions.

Seeing yourself reflected on screen is a very important part of being human. It makes us feel less alone, it make us feel more connected to humanity.

When I was growing up, in the '80s and '90s, I just never really saw myself reflected in the things that I had a liking for. It makes a difference.

For most of my childhood, even through college, there was a lot of feeling very alone. I loved TV, so when those very special episodes of anything came, or when certain characters reflected the world I lived in, I felt connected.

For those of you who are underrepresented in technology, know that you've always been here. Look in photos and see yourself reflecting back.

I'm a reflection of the community.

I went through a soul-searching period. I went to a place that was a little bit more reflective and dark. I began to look at who I am, who I was, where I come from, what my culture is, and who I am as an African-American person in America.

The most important thing I feel in the acting profession is to create a community that reflects you back to you.

I am not patriotic or nationalistic, but the French language is like a country where I take refuge when I have nowhere else to go. It consoles me for everything. For me, the language no longer belongs to the colonialists.

For years, in the wake of Rushdie, I had imagined magical realism to be the last refuge of the non-resident Indian.

We live in the age of the refugee, the age of the exile.

I believe in the promise of America. Being a Cuban refugee, having come here when I was eight, I know that this is a shining city on the hill.

I am the face of a refugee. I was once a refugee. I was with my family in exile.

My mother left Hungary as a refugee, and she is not nostalgic for the life that she had back in Hungary, and yet Cubans certainly want the economic opportunity in the United States, but they're desperately homesick for the culture that they left behind.

My grandmother - my mother's mother - was a German Jewish refugee, an only child who came here from Berlin in 1936 at the age of 17.

From age six to 12, I lived in seven different countries, moving from one refugee camp to another, hoping we would be wanted.

I think a lot of Americans forget that they are not originally from here, that somebody in their past was a refugee.

I've identified all my life with refugees.

I was the child of refugees.

Yeah, we were refugees coming to the U.K. and I definitely now view myself as a Rwandan Scotsman.

We have always found the Irish a bit odd. They refuse to be English.

I'm Asian, so they assumed I'm not an American and that I come from Japan. Restaurants would refuse to serve me, and places would refuse to give you a haircut.

People who refuse to integrate into our society and want to live apart in their ghetto don't make our society strong.