Quotes About Identity

There is nothing settled about a poet's identity. The becoming doesn't stop because the being has been achieved. They proceed together, attached in ways that are hard to be exact about.

There is a Canadian culture that is in some ways unique to Canada, but I don't think Canadian culture coincides neatly with borders.

In some ways, in the U.S. we don't know how to be. I think in a lot of ways America is about liberation and about change and progressive human relations. And because of that, I feel like that we're confused about who we're supposed to be and what it is that's supposed to satisfy us and make us feel fulfilled.

To me, 'The End of the Jews' - both the title and the novel itself - is about the end of pat, uncritical ways of understanding oneself in the world.

Adolescence is a modern construct and very American in so many ways.

I never really had a teenage experience. I went from childhood to maturity, and in some ways, it short-circuited me emotionally.

In many ways the Palestinians are the new Indians, the Indians of Israel.

In some ways, I'm still a kid from Missouri and Oklahoma, and I'm trying to find my way.

During the day, I was a doctor. At night, you know, I was a comic. And it was really just to let off some steam. It just became my golf, you know, in many ways. Most doctors have golf as a hobby. Mine was doing comedy.

It takes a strong effort on the part of each American Indian not to become Europeanized. The strength for this effort can only come from the traditional ways, the traditional values that our elders retain.

My mom's Brazilian, so she and I definitely grew up with different perspectives. I was born in America, and she's from Brazil, so we have different ways of doing things. There's a bit of culture clash there.

For years, Islamists and other extremists have taken advantage of grievances of Muslims in Britain and have successfully identified ways to integrate them under one 'Islamic' banner.

I felt that if the public found out that a black man made a fool of David Duke, his attempts at a political career would have fallen by wayside.

I think when someone knows who they are and is comfortable and confident with that, I think a lot of the typical, aesthetic things sort of fall by the wayside.

We cannot live being obsessed with what other people think about us. It's impossible to live like that. Not even God managed to please the entire world.

We cannot blame globalisation for diluting our cultural heritage and music, as our music is respected more outside India than here.

We cannot get by Auschwitz. We should not even try, as great as the temptation is, because Auschwitz belongs to us, is branded into our history, and - to our benefit! - has made possible an insight that could be summarized as, 'Now we finally know ourselves.'

The Ford Motor Co. should stand for something more than cars and trucks. There is a Ford way of doing things that we cannot lose... We need to be continuously polishing that Ford oval.

We cannot afford to be color-blind, we have to be color-brave.

We cannot consume our way into personal growth. Yet, millions of us have bought into this cynical concept of faux identity.

We are evolving as one species - not only as Americans, Syrians, Russians, Chinese, and jihadists. We cannot attack one without inflicting forms of violence and destruction upon ourselves. This is our new reality.

There is a direct relationship between how we feel about Jesus Christ and how we see ourselves. We cannot increase our devotion to the Savior without also obtaining a greater sense of purpose, identity, and conviction.

We cannot continually barricade ourselves under some falsified idea of race, because our idea of blackness and race is simply reactionary. Africans didn't walk around Africa being black and proud, they walked around proud.

We cannot be all the writers all the time. We can only be who we are.