Quotes About Culture

The amount of sensory material stored up or stored down in the brain's and the body's systems is inestimable. It's like a culture at the bottom of a jar, although it doesn't grow, I think, or help anything else to grow unless you find a way to reach it and touch it.

India's connection with philanthropy didn't begin with western influences. The connection with philanthropy is age-old and ingrained in our value systems.

One would think that people who insist on being monotheistic would be the first in line to walk across the artificial boundaries created by nation states, class systems, cultures and even religions. But often they are the last!

I wonder sometimes why the U.S. reviewers are more negative towards turn-based battle systems.

We know from research that the reading circuit is not given to human beings through a genetic blueprint like vision or language; it needs an environment to develop. Further, it will adapt to that environment's requirements - from different writing systems to the characteristics of whatever medium is used.

I don't have much knowledge about Indian culture, but I try to keep a tab of what's happening down here.

It was the era of Tab Hunter and Rock Hudson; they all had a certain look.

I do not recall a Jewish home without a book on the table.

My mother always cooked, every day, proper food. We didn't have fast food. It was probably pretty much meat and two veg, but as time went on and new things came into the culture, she embraced all of that. I grew up with mealtimes and sitting around the table with proper cooking and eating.

Growing up in Ireland, there never seemed to be the notion that children should be seen and not heard. We all looked forward to mealtimes when we'd sit around the table and talk about our days. Storytelling and long, rambling conversations were considered good things.

You go to a restaurant in the States and kids have these game boards at the table. You don't see that in Italy or Spain. It's not because they can't afford to buy them, it's because that's not what eating together as a family is about.

Sitting at the table doesn't make you a diner. You must be eating some of what's on that plate. Being here in America doesn't make you an American. Being born here in America doesn't make you an American.

In the French culture, they talk politics. I didn't find it was part of our culture to have political arguments at the table. My husband's family will get into major politics, and it's not an aggressive thing. It's so interesting and you learn so much, whether it's Right or Left, and that to me has been really great.

As the daughter of immigrants, growing up in New York City, you are either at the table or on the menu.

Our world is enriched when coders and marketers dazzle us with smartphones and tablets, but, by themselves, they are just slabs. It is the music, essays, entertainment and provocations that they access, spawned by the humanities, that animate them - and us.

I think people used to read 'War and Peace,' and now they don't; now they sit around with their tablets and watch 'Downton Abbey' and 'Breaking Bad' or whatever, and they want the things that they watch to be better so that they can feel better about themselves for watching it.

It's that invasive and puerile curiosity to feed a tabloid culture. I don't subscribe to it.

Folklore provides a socially sanctioned outlet for the discussion of the forbidden and taboo.

Some people have a taboo about doing advertising in the States. You know, where they kind of make their bread and butter. But to me, that's crazy.

Remember, taboos are just a map of what a society feels it's acceptable to be neurotic about. Taboos aren't rational.

I think there's a lot of taboos in hip-hop that people try and stay away from. I think a big one is, people are afraid to speak about God to a certain extent, and I think if you're not free to speak about God, then you're not free.

I love watching the National Geographic channel. That show 'Taboo'? I love it!

I don't believe in nudity for nudity's sake, but it's really beautiful when it's done well, when it's within a story. I'm very comfortable with my body. I grew up mostly in France, where nudity is not taboo.

Partly what I'm writing about is the way taboos get toppled.