Quotes About Culture

No. But then the American Government--whatever branch--has never really grasped the concept of tribal identity.

Indian, as in American Indian.

it just proved that I think like an American. Violence is dandy, but God forbid you show sex on stage.

It's nice to see you." Stupid, silly, banal little words. Luca smiles, his dark blue eyes sparking. "Nice?" he says, and he starts to take off his shoes. "This is a very strong word in English, non è vero ?" "No," I say quickly. "It's not a strong word at all." "Oh, peccato ," he says cheerfully, which means "what a shame.

shed his Harvard persona in his late twenties and moved to South Carolina, where he'd immediately made a fortune in real estate. Judging from everything Emily had told me, he'd morphed into a first-class Southern boy, a real straw-chewin', tobacco-spittin' hick, which of course appalled Miranda, the epitome of class and sophistication. B

Peace out, L.A.! Goodbye, wheatgrass and early-morning mountain hikes and hideous highway traffic and surfing culture and most of all people who either didn't understand or didn't like sarcasm. Hello, dirt and bagels and taxis and self-deprecation and edge. It was good to be home.

From far across the sea I come, Through fire, frost,and blazing sun, That you might, with your own fair hand, Enjoy the bounties of my land - Emma Delagardie and Augustus Whittlesby Americanus, A masque in three parts

Oh, no," said Mr. Fitzhugh blithely, immune to nuance. "We're here to see the ruins." Lady Vaughn looked innocently up at her husband. "Isn't that what you said, Vaughn?

Of all the weapons the Europeans brought to the Pacific, guns included, none was more powerful and more capable of effecting lasting change than written language.

A culture that does not teach prayer soon runs mad with desire.

My parents didn't raise me to be religious. The closest we come to worship is the Trinity of Visa, MasterCard, and American Express.

In foreign countries I am drawn into grocery shops, supermarkets and kitchen supply houses. I explain this by reminding my friends that, as I was taught in my Introduction to Anthropology, it is not just the Great Works of mankind that make a culture. It is the daily things, like what people eat and how they serve it.

The only number that would ever be enough is 0. Zero pounds, zero life, size zero, double-zero, zero point. Zero in tennis is love. I finally get it.

Grandma frowned and yelled something in Russian. She could have been saying, 'Open up, your best friend is here.' On the other hand, it could have been, 'America is a great country because of canned ravioli.

They're on their way to the foreign-language wing. That's no surprise. The foreign kids are always here, like they need to breathe air scented with their native language a couple times a day or they'll choke to death on too much American.

Picasso sure had a thing for naked women. Why not draw them with their clothes on? Who sits around without a shirt on, plucking a mandolin? Why not draw naked guys, just to be fair? Naked women is art, naked men a no-no, I bet. Probably because most painters are men.

our culture has the expectation that the memories of a happy childhood will somehow ground you and prepare you for adult life. But what about the memories that cut, that wound, that won't heal?

The Welsh are not like any other people in Britain, and they know how separate they are. They are the Celts, the tough little wine-dark race who were the original possessors of the island, who never mixed with the invaders coming later from the east, but were slowly driven into the western mountains.

Expert Tip: "The day will come when you fervently wish that you are only as fat as you were the FIRST time you thought you were fat."—Michelle Loyet, MAW, whom I've been on vacation with numerous times

In the Sitting Room, the walls were given over to framed Ape and Spy caricatures from the old Vanity Fair

Well, that was well before awesome. People who say awesome now wouldn't be born for another thirty years. What's it about, Bern? Colonies on Alpha Centauri? Space ships shooting at each other with lasers?

I love the French edition with its uncut pages. I would not want a reader too lazy to use a knife on me.

But there are more than five sexes and only demotic Greek seems to distinguish among them.

Other countries may offer you discoveries in manners or lore or landscape; Greece offers you something harder—the discovery of yourself.