Quotes About Belonging

I notice I have both African and Belgian characteristics.

Moving to the U.S. was an adjustment. I noticed that the kids played in groups. Back in Kakuma, everyone played together.

The notion of someone who is fitting in or trying to become part of a larger family... It's hard to separate that from my own Jewish roots.

I think that Judaism has been, throughout its history since A.D. 70, a diaspora culture that's all about being a minority. In fact, being a small minority. When I'm in Israel, I cannot get used to the notion that we're all Jewish. It doesn't seem to me that we're supposed to all be Jewish.

When a child wants to be accepted, he'll do anything. And if it means you're getting a certain amount of notoriety from a fight, that's what you'll do.

The best way I could describe it at Notre Dame was that I was accepted as a member of the family.

I just wanted to be a part of Notre Dame. The school and I have a great relationship.

'Terra Nova,' more than anything I've ever done in my life, is for everybody.

Many of the novelists I admire never left their hometown. Look at Flannery O'Connor. So many of the great Russians never left Russia. Shakespeare never left England. The list goes on.

Can I eventually take classes and eliminate my accent? Sure. I guess anybody could. But this is who I am, and this is what I got. And there are millions of people who sound just like me. Millions. It's not like this is some novelty.

I've always felt like I belonged, and you need affirmation every now and then.

I belong nowhere and to no one.

Maybe I am not French, maybe I am from nowhere.

No, I'm not a French designer either. I'm from nowhere. I'm a European, old European is all I am.

'Cullum' is Scottish, but I'm nowhere near Scottish. My mother is Burmese, and my father is of German, Jewish, English ancestry.

American? Indian? I don't know what these words mean. In Italy, it is all about blood, family, where you come from. I'm asked where I am from. I'm from nowhere; I always was, but now I am happy knowing it.

I felt I had to choose between being pretty or smart or athletic, and stick to it because if you try to do more than one, you have nowhere to belong. Then music was a boy's world and a lot of times men assumed I didn't know what I was doing because I was young and female.

Christiania has a lot of strong, nuclear families. It gave us a sense of empowerment and belonging and richness. We had so much love; we were never in doubt that we were wanted in this world.

People intuitively realize that there is strength in numbers and take comfort in the company of others, especially in times of anxiety or need.

Oh, I love labels, as long as they are numerous. I'm an American writer. I'm a Nigerian writer. I'm a Nigerian American writer. I'm an African writer. I'm a Yoruba writer. I'm an African American writer.

I've said numerous times how proud I am to be Scottish and how proud I have been to compete for Britain, too, and I don't think these two things necessarily have to be mutually exclusive.

I was the black atheist kid in the all-white Catholic school run by nuns.

I was twice-born. I'm Mexican by nature and Hungarian by nurture.

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