Quotes About Culture

There is no understanding Englishness without understanding its imperial and colonial dimensions.

I have never worked on race and ethnicity as a kind of subcategory; I have always worked on the whole social formation which is racialised

Consensual' views of society represent society as if there are no major cultural or economic breaks, no major conflicts of interests between classes and groups. Whatever disagreements exist, it is said, there are legitimate and institutionalised means for expressing and reconciling them.

To Americans, the outward display of intelligence is considered unseemly. The Donald Trumps of the world can boast about their penthouses and Ferraris, their women can wear baubles the size of Nebraska, and no one says boo. If you have money, you're almost always expected to flaunt it. But intellect? This is something else entirely. Women, especially, are supposed to play dumb.

In a country as profoundly anti-intellectual as ours it is predictable that our leaders will do whatever they can in order not to appear smart in public.

We aren't rednecks. We're European. Big difference.

Since most of us are products of a culture and era where nobody likes to discuss death in case it encourages her to visit,

A culture that values only what has succeeded before, where the first rule of success is that there must be something 'measured' and counted, is not a culture that will sustain alternatives to market-driven 'creativity.

A culture that values only what has succeeded before, where the first rule of success is that there must be something to be 'measured' and counted, is not a culture that will sustain alternatives to market-driven 'creativity.' (NYRB, Vol. LX, No. 17)

Americans are a decade behind Canada when it comes to sex education and understanding their bodies.

Probably the worst thing about being Jewish during Christmas time is shopping, because the lines are so long. They should have a Jewish express line, "Look, I'm a Jew. It's not a gift. It's just paper towels!"

And for two weeks I was banged up with a Hobbit who only spoke Elvish," said Jess.

Books are big enough and powerful enough to define and contain identity.--Aaron Lansky

We didn't eat much", one woman told Aaron, "but we always bought a book. It was a necessity of life." The Book Rescuer

To instill the values for the culture was and is the responsibility of the leadership, and staff alignment was critical to its success. It started with both board and staff. They realized that they needed to share the same value system that says, "I am the equipper, not the doer." If not, there were going to be immense roadblocks to effectively mobilizing people for ministry.

The protect-against-evil-eye mark was similar to the dots that Parsis drew on their children's head and feet, and the thick kohl eyeliner that adorned young Hindu children.

Parsis say to always give the first bite of food to the dog!

Anybody in the world can come to India and find home.

The first thing that a new migrant sends to his family back home isn't money; it's a story. Of the arduous journey here, the snow on the streets, the rude immigration agent or the kindly social worker; the lights of the Eiffel Tower or the cold reception from the cousins with whom he's staying.

For even now, decades after I first adopted it, English does not pierce my heart the same way that my mother tongue does. The word division weighs less than bundan, and war is easier to say than junjeng.

Such is the condition of a first-generation immigrant for whom everything is separated into now and then, into before the move and after.

The entire country was like a linguistic and cultural Galápagos.

As for unmarried women, I have no idea where they are buried. For a very long time, in Korea, no one talked about them.)

The Chinese people have only family and clan solidarity; they do not have national spirit… they are just a heap of loose sand…. Other men are the carving knife and serving dish; we are the fish and the meat.