Quotes About Culture

I think a lot of Jews make Israel the centerpiece of their Judaism. It becomes the centerpiece of their Jewish existence and of their faith. I have always felt that that's not for me.

Judaism is a brilliant religion, and the main function of Judaism is to learn and read.

For years, Judaism has been a sort of product put on the religious shelf, and on holidays, we would take it off the shelf and let seculars play with it for a bit. Now, Judaism is going back to being something that more closely touches everyone.

I sometimes wonder why I talk about Judaism so much in my act, and the reason is that it's such a huge part of who I am, and I only make fun of stuff that I care about.

The difficult thing for me is going to a event and having to be dressed up and being judged for what you wear. People care so much about that these days.

I don't want my children growing up in a world where they think that their heritage and skin colour could be judged negatively.

One can only imagine how Iranians or Afghans would deal with unelected judges moving to de-Islamicize their nations.

The fact is, Latinos now own their own lives and I believe they can afford to look back without judgment.

I was raised by two actors in a moment in time - the Seventies - when there was no judgment of characters, no heroes and bad guys.

Racism is everywhere - the older generations in Malaysia still say things like, 'She's darker-skinned; maybe don't marry her,' and it's very judgmental. A lot of girls do try to get fairness cream to lighten their skin, and I'm against all of that.

I think that U.K. audiences, in general, are very closed off. Very judgmental.

Acting is very anthropological for me. It makes me less judgmental.

I don't think it's good, culturally, to base all critical judgments on a single performance.

Hip Hop has become real constrained. The creative juices and creative flows have been diminished.

I've actually seen a good amount of the shows at Lincoln Center Theater. I went to school right across the street at Juilliard, so some of the first stuff I got to see here in New York was at the Lincoln Center Theater. I've always been inspired by the work that they do.

I know it affected me when I saw certain actors growing up. I had a drama teacher that would take us to see plays in New York, and it was seeing James Earl Jones and Raul Julia - I mean, this guy comes from the place my mother comes from. He's doing Shakespeare right now, and it doesn't seem to matter that he has an accent.

I like a lot of international people. Julie Taymore, the American director - she's one of the most exciting directors I've seen.

Maharashtrians in America have a Maharashtra mandal every year. You know when they celebrate it? On July 4, the American Independence Day. That's respect for local culture.

I sang in English my whole life; I just happened to decide that I had a passion for Latin music, and I wanted to jump into Latin music first.

My wife asked me to marry her. But we did not jump the broom.

I'm a little Italian girl from New Haven who, as an actor, gets to jump classes through language.

People are always jumping at what's new - who's the next person, who's the hottest thing, or whatever - so to be able to grasp the attention of everybody is difficult.

I'm not someone who jumps in a car to make for the country, I'm an urbanite. I love living in London and there's always something going on.

I don't know nothing about no jungle and bass.