Quotes About Culture

Writing in English was a major challenge. I didn't want other songwriters to write for me. I wanted to preserve the spirit of my songs in Spanish. I am the same Shakira in English as I am in Spanish.

We need to focus on the kind of human beings we want to have and the kind of society in which we want to live.

Society or culture or whatever you might want to call it, has created us all solely and wholly for the purpose of maintaining its continuity and status quo.

In my music, my plays, my films, I want to carry always this central idea: to be African.

I'm Cuban, so I like a bit of curve. I just want my booty to have a little lift!

Would you respect a God you could comprehend? And yet very often thatÂ's what we want - a God who reflects our culture, our biases, our economic, political, and military systems.

We are a people who do not want to keep much of the past in our heads. It is considered unhealthy in America to remember mistakes, neurotic to think about them, psychotic to dwell on them.

All serious art is being destroyed by commerce. Most people don't want art to be disturbing. They want it to be escapist. I don't think art should be escapist. That's a waste of time.

Modern man lives under the illusion that he knows what he wants, while he actually wants what he is supposed to want.

Music has an intrinsic value that touches Americans - they love their music, and want more.

Swedes are a really humble and shy people in many ways, but I think it's pretty much the same as in the U.S. Little girls want to take photographs with me at lunch.

Once we get our corporate culture the way we want it, we have to hire people who fit. Otherwise, the wheels fall off the wagon and we quickly find ourselves back where we started.

The British do not expect happiness. I had the impression, all the time that I lived there, that they do not want to be happy; they want to be right.

Bop is at the end of the road. Now everybody wants dance music.

Sometimes I want to joke but my English isn't perfect. Sometimes people are wondering what I'm talking about.

Anybody whos been to Ecuador wants to go back because its beautiful out there.

Hindu Dharma is the quintessence of our national life, hold fast to it if you want your country to survive, or else you would be wiped out in three generations.

When one wants to change manners and customs, one should not do so by changing the laws.

I ain't makin' music for the media. I make music for the people in the streets - that want a street level of entertainment. I'm makin' music because I have the streets to feed.

You try to come up with new ideas, but in the end, people just want to eat Italian food.

Civilization consists in the multiplication and refinement of human wants.

Guys wake up at your place and they expect breakfast. They don't eat bagels and M&M's in the morning. They want things like toast. I say, 'I don't have these recipes.'

No one knows anything about the fashion industry in Brazil. They don't care what you do. They just want the beach and the sun and the fun. I feel the freest and the happiest there.

It's my country but I don't want to know about France - I was born there but I feel English.