Quotes About Heritage

If you sit down to write a limerick, you find yourself straddling two histories: the history of the limerick form itself, which stretches back to at least the 11th century, and your personal history of knowing limericks or poems similar to limericks.

My dad wanted to name me after Rainier Maria Rilke, the poet.

It's very important to me to be an American poet, a Jewish poet, a poet who came of age in the 1960s.

Once I stop being a citizen of the U.S.S.R., I will not stop being a Russian poet.

In African-American culture, there's often a family historian, someone who does the genealogy or keeps the family Bible. I became aware that might be one role the poet has.

In 'Blindspotting' I play a girl from Oakland, I've got an accent, I've got long, '90s 'Poetic Justice' braids, and in 'Monsters and Men' I play a girl from Brooklyn.

Poetry is what we do to break bread with the dead.

I am a patriot, but I must say that English poetry is the richest in the world.

There is a wonderful Hungarian literature, especially in lyric poetry.

San Francisco has long been a leader in the arts, nurturing generations of painters, sculptors, poets, novelists, playwrights, film-makers, and performing artists and innovators of every kind.

Poets, I think, are born. You can't teach it. It's genetic - the circumstances of how you were raised... and there's probably some Irish in your blood lines.

My brother and I were brought up sort of thinking that we were English. I remember hearing the poet Roy Campbell on the radio and being quite shocked that he had a South African accent. I didn't know there were any South African poets.

I found poetry at 12 and 13 and, lo and behold, learned that my attorney father had a background in poetry - as he wore dashikis and Afros in the '70s and named his kids Arabic names. He was a poet and a lot like The Last Poets and Gil Scott-Heron and all of these folks. He definitely was an artist.

You have to write some poetry, first of all, to decide if you can become a lyricist. I was born in a family of poets.

I think my Latino culture has equipped me with a different point of view than the rest of my counterparts, and seeing things from a different angle has helped me a lot. I feel very proud of my culture, of my Latino heritage.

I spent the first 16 years of my life in Scotland. My whole family is there. It's in my blood and informs my sense of humour, my point of view, the people I choose to spend time with, everything.

My dad always pointed out Louis Armstrong's pad when we passed by there. And me and my dad were both proud Louis Armstrong was from New Orleans.

Growing up in the U.S., music became a way for me to find my roots and anchor points.

Someone once claimed I was not really a Yorkshireman!

I love the classic marble inlay work of Arga.

I like to do things that are classic.

That's the best thing that classic can do, is it can return to us from our own past to give us lessons about the future, and it can give us a sense of both who we were and who we could become.

I'm a huge country fan and am always inspired by classic country.

There are a lot of classical musicians in my family, so I grew up with that being kind of normal.