Quotes About Culture

My introduction to art history was like everybody else's. You see an art history book that has works by Rembrandt and Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo. Yes, these things are great. But I don't see a reflection of myself in any of these things I'm looking at.

I think any great culture is born out of transparent, authentic communication. You almost can't overcommunicate. You can try, and you might think, 'Oh, do I really have to say this again?' And the answer is yes.

My parents were from New England. It's very funny, but when I grew up, you always had to say, 'Yes, ma'am' and 'Yes, sir.'

We see things like reciprocity which are fairly central to our view of ethics. But if you're talking about a set of worked-out rules on what we are supposed to do then, yes, it is a human product.

Growing up in London, with a hippie mom, I don't know that I'm most people's definition of what a black person is. I'm mixed, yes, but in the world I'm defined as black before I'm defined white. I've never been called white.

I'm a nationalist. I'm a patriot. Nothing is wrong. I'm a born Hindu. Nothing is wrong. So, I'm a Hindu nationalist, so yes, you can say I'm a Hindu nationalist because I am a born Hindu, I'm patriotic, so nothing is wrong in it.

Yes, many people in rural parts of India are very orthodox and have arranged marriages. But I won't - I want to fall madly in love with someone and be whisked off my feet.

Trap is new. It didn't start yesterday, but when I was 5, it didn't exist - not even in the U.S. I've evolved with the music.

At age 11, I went to a Jewish school. I speak Yiddish. I'm Church of England Protestant. My father was Catholic, and my mother was Protestant. My wife is a Muslim.

Growing up in California, my best friend was Morris Rabinowitz and we often went to the Yiddish Theater.

The songs I love to sing are story songs, from Yiddish songs to Tom Waits.

Growing up in South London, we went to a school where there were not that many Jewish kids. I love being Jewish in L.A.; it feels really normal. The culture seems to be integrated into Hollywood. Everyone uses Yiddish words like 'schlep' and 'schmooze.' That's what I love about New York, too.

I did not grow up singing Yiddish.

When my father came out on stage wearing a big cowboy hat and a shirt lettered 'Bar Mitzvah Ranch' to sing 'Home on the Range' in Yiddish, it was his way of saying, 'I want to be an American.'

I never learned to speak Yiddish, ever.

Well, I like how people talk. I like language. You know, Linda Richman spoke in Yiddish.

The Yiddish language is so rich and unusual that I've always been hooked on its sounds, although I don't speak it.

If you're creating something that has some sort of cultural currency - if the idea is getting out there - then that will probably yield money in some form, whether it's through selling art or selling books or being asked to give a lecture.

After the Egyptian and Indian, the Greek and Roman, the Teuton and Mongolian, the Negro is a sort of seventh son, born with a veil, and gifted with second-sight in this American world, - a world which yields him no self-consciousness, but only lets him see himself through the revelation of the other world.

My mom was a practicing Hindu, and my dad was a Catholic who practiced yoga meditation and karma yoga. My earliest memories are of the bright colors, beautiful sounds, and fragrant aromas of both Christian and Hindu celebrations.

I'm dying to go to India... because the culture seems so vastly different from what I'm used to in the States. I would love to do some yoga there. And be amongst people who are so different than myself. There's so much you can learn from people who grew up in a different environment.

My mom is a yoga instructor: 100% black with dreadlocks.

Yoga in America is a joke.

Growing up sucks, doesn't it? I understand why people wouldn't want to get old - but it'd be one thing if we became a culture obsessed with eating right, doing yoga, going to therapy and becoming at one with ourselves. That be great. But we don't do that. We seem to be obsessed with all the wrong ways to stay young.