Quotes About Belonging

I thought that no matter how many hills and brooks you crossed, the whole world was Korea and everyone in it was Korean. —Park Wan-suh

Noa realized that this was what he wanted most of all: to be seen as human.

all of them had lost the home in their minds for good.

His presence would prove to the world that she was a good person, an educated person, a liberal person. Noa didn't care about being Korean when he was with her; in fact, he didn't care about being Korean or Japanese with anyone. He wanted to be, to be just himself, whatever that meant; he wanted to forget himself sometimes. But that wasn't possible. It would never be possible with her.

There was nothing else he could think of, and he wanted to spare her the cruelty of what he had learned, because she would not believe that she was no different than her parents, that seeing him as only Korean—good or bad—was the same as seeing him only as a bad Korean. She could not see his humanity, and Noa realized that this was what he wanted most of all: to be seen as human

Japan will never change. It will never ever integrate gaijin...But it's not just you. Japan will never take people like my mother back into society again; it will never take back people like me. And we're Japanese

History has failed us, but no matter. Kyunghee would be waiting for her at home. -Pachinko

Is it so terrible to be Korean?" "It is terrible to be me.

I think he just got tired of trying to be a good Korean and quit. I was never a good Korean.

He had visited South Korea with his father several times, and everyone there always treated them like they were Japanese. It was no homecoming;

In a way, Solomon was Japanese, too, even if the Japanese didn't think so. Phoebe couldn't see this. There was more to being something than just blood.

My dad's whole family is in Madras and I was born in America so we didn't have that big Indian community. I don't really have anything interesting to say about it. When I talk about it people are like, 'meh, let's talk about something else.'

Nothing gives you confidence like being a member of a small, weirdly specific, hard-to-find demographic.

But I'm the kind of person who actually likes feeling a little bit out of place. Aspirational is how I feel comfortable.

It was finally clear. The reason I'm Kind of Hindu and will raise my daughter to be Kind of Hindu is to have this connection deep inside my own heart to other people who look like us and have shared key experiences, thousands of miles away. I don't have to be full-on religious, and I doubt I'll ever be knowledgeable enough to satisfy her or my curiosity about our faith, but I'm really going to try.

One good thing about New York is that most people function daily while in a low-grade depression. It's not like if you're in Los Angeles, where everyone's so actively working on cheerfulness and mental and physical health that if they sense you're down, they shun you. Also, all that sunshine is a cruel joke when you're depressed. In New York, even in your misery, you feel like you belong.

When they arrived, we all sat around my small apartment, ate delicious Indian food, and talked and talked for hours. I was surprised by how calming it was to be around people who looked like me and who reminded me of where I was from.

But it took me twelve weeks to realize that I don't really like organizations where people are "deemed" things. I should mention that I did learn a few undeniably useful things at my sorority,

In my line of work, every man wears exactly one outfit: khakis, a Late Night with Jimmy Fallon T-shirt, and a hooded sweatshirt. If you don't wear that, people think you are a Scientologist and no one will eat lunch with you.

Whom did I belong to?

In nature there is no alienation. Everything belongs.

To be an immigrant Is to be solitary in the midst of millions.

Ara és l'hora de dir, ara és l'hora de recordar que el poble persisteix en tots nosaltres, en cada un de nosaltres, i que tot allò que hem fet i tot allò que hem desitjat és l'essència mateixa del poble indestructible.

Vajah beganagi nahin malum Tum jahan ke ho vahan ke ham bhi hain