Quotes About Identity

Sometimes I think I would rather just remember it in my head, all those streets and the places I loved. The way it smelled of car exhaust and sweet fruit. The thickness of the heat. The sound of dogs barking in alleyways. That's the Panama I want to hold on to. Because a place can do many things against you, and if it's your home or if it was your home at one time, you still love it. That's how it works.

We left a lot of things behind - not only physical objects, but our friends and of course our families, pieces of ourselves - all for the chance to see that light in Maribel's eyes. It's been difficult, yes, but I would do it all again. People do what they have to do in this life. We try to get from one end of it to the other with dignity and with honor. We do the best we can.

Maybe it's the instinct of every immigrant, born of necessity or of longing:

Americanah; Ayad Akhtar, American Dervish; Julia Alvarez, How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents; Sandra Cisneros, The House on Mango Street; Junot Díaz, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao; Teju Cole, Open City; William Faulkner, As I Lay Dying; Nell Freudenberger, The Newlyweds; Cristina García, Dreaming in Cuban and King of Cuba; Chang-rae Lee, Native Speaker.

Just trying to blend in. That's the way of the world." "Well, that's the way of America, at least," my mom said.

I mean Ã¢â'¬Â¦ I lost myself. In between." "Oh," I said, and then I just sat there, because something about that idea—that you could be one person in one moment and then wake up and be completely different—punched me in the gut.

In between." "Oh," I said, and then I just sat there, because something about that idea—that you could be one person in one moment and then wake up and be completely different—punched me in the gut.

wasn't allowed to claim the thing I felt and I didn't feel the thing I was supposed to claim.

They were torn between wanting to look back and wanting to exist absolutely in the new life they'd created

We're the unknown Americans, the ones no one even wants to know, because they've been told they're supposed to be scared of us and because maybe if they did take the time to get to know us, they might realize that we're not that bad, maybe even that we're a lot like them. And who would they hate

I just sat there, because something about that idea—that you could be one person in one moment and then wake up and be completely different—punched me in the gut.

We're the unknown Americans, the ones no one even wants to know, because they've been told they're supposed to be scared of us and because maybe if they did take the time to get to know us, they might realize that we're not that bad, maybe even that we're a lot

the media, you'll learn that we're all gangbangers, we're all drug dealers, we're tossing bodies in vats of acid, we want to destroy America, we still think Texas belongs to us, we all have swine flu, we carry machine guns under our coats, we don't pay any taxes, we're lazy, we're stupid, we're all wetbacks who crossed the border illegally. I swear to God, I'm so tired of being called a spic, a nethead, a cholo, all this stuff.

We're the unknown Americans, the ones no one even wants to know, because they've been told they're supposed to be scared of us and because maybe if they did take the time to get to know us, they might realize that we're not that bad, maybe even that we're a lot like them. And who would they hate then? It

I had learned by then that Maribel liked to think of herself as a rebel. And yet she managed only small insurrections.

Profesora Shields explained that in English there was no usted, no tu. There was only one word—you. It applied to all people. Everyone equal. No one higher or lower than anyone else. No one more distant or more familiar. You. They. Me. I. Us. We. There were no words that changed from feminine to masculine and back again depending on the speaker. A person was from New York. Not a woman from New York, not a man from New York. Simply a person.

Who could think that a person's entire being is housed in a finger or in a hip bone or in a small piece of a skull, and that the rest of the body exists for appearances only?

Nada puedo decir sobre el estado de mi alma; existimos, eso es todo».

En la desgracia descubres tu auténtica naturaleza

Llegó a Roma española, católica, virgen y rica y se va francesa, atea, puta y mendiga. Sobre Cristina de Suecia

Mi vida conyugal es muy feliz y plena... pero me resulta imposible conservar mi rango de manera razonable, puesto que ya no soy dueño y señor, simplemente marido. Príncipe Alberto de Inglaterra.

Hay gente a quien su desnudez la viste -digo- , y hay gente que, al vestirse, se queda sola.

Porque no sé casi nada de ti y quiero saber, y me da miedo saber, y no quisiera preguntarte, pero te pregunto y tú no quieres hablar, preferirías un amor anónimo, que empezara hoy, o ayer, sin carnés de identidad, sin relato.

We have all been exiled from something or someone. I think this is a human condition