Quotes About Belonging

I was a sickly baby, and after two sets of adoptive parents took me home, they returned me to the orphanage because of a serious respiratory infection. But as they say, the third time's a charm, because my mom and dad adopted me and took me into their home where I was raised in a family full of love.

I started playing at six. I was at a school always playing football with my friends. But I was always bored at home. I asked my father if he could start me in a football team. He took me to a team called Rupel Boom, who were playing in the fourth division in Belgium, and I stayed there for four years.

Music is a tool that brings people together.

Anyone in the Tooth & Nail or Drive-Thru scene was my thing.

It was very hard for me, for most of my life, to feel American, or call myself American, and that is a very complicated topic that would require a very long conversation.

A true flag is not something you can really design. A true flag is torn from the soul of the people. A flag is something that everyone owns, and that's why they work. The Rainbow Flag is like other flags in that sense: it belongs to the people.

Our friends, neighbors, and their families have been forced to live in the shadows out of fear of being torn from their families and deported from what is, for many of them, the only country they have ever known.

When I think of myself, I think of Toronto. My music would never sound the way it does if it weren't for Toronto.

Toronto is a very multicultural city, a place of immigrants, like my parents.

I think I am staying in Toronto. It keeps me grounded and I can be with my family and friends.

For me personally to come back to Toronto, I lived here for three years. I always love coming back here.

In Toronto and Los Angeles, too, there are a lot of Koreans - Koreatown, Korean markets. I feel like I'm at home and very comfortable.

I lived in London for a long time, and that's a pretty white town. In Toronto, I just ended up in this circle of indie rock kids who happened to be white, too... Really, it was just when I started getting out there and meeting more people and seeing more fans that I went, 'Oh, actually, I'm not white.'

Toronto has been home to me and my family for almost 5 years. I arrived here from Italy in January 2015 and immediately felt something special.

I personally want to be in Toronto.

The advantage of playing in Toronto is not playing for one city, you're playing for a country.

I am Toronto. Outside of where I'm from, I represent this city harder than anybody.

I took pride in everything when it came to Canada. Not even just Toronto, everything that came with Canada, wearing that Toronto Raptors jersey.

For me, it's always been about Toronto. I love it here. My family loves it here. My wife loves it here, which is important.

I always say in my camps in Africa, in everything we do, 'My name is Masai and I'm from Nigeria.' My name is Masai and I'm from Nigeria. It's plain and simple. If you're from La Loche or you are from Toronto you should be proud of it.

I'm proud of Toronto. I'm proud of Canada. I'm proud of the NBA. I'm very proud of it.

We immigrated when I was 3 1/2 years old, to Toronto. But I'm still very, very close to my culture and - back home in Egypt.

You can be in the league and still feel like you're not in the league. That was the point I was at when I left Toronto.

I love it here. I really do. Toronto is home for me.