Quotes About Identity

Ordénales, te ruego, que callen. ¿Por qué siguen gritando? ¿A quién aplauden? ¿A quién aclaman? ¿A sus verdugos? ¿A sus muertos? ¿O querrán convencerse de que tienen manos y pueden hacerlas sonar, de que tienen voz y pueden gritar y oír así la voz que tienen?

So entrenched is our fictional image of Gypsies that we often brush aside real-world experiences as a mirage when they contradict the picture that we have absorbed and internalized.

But on one occasion he was lost for words. 'If it's all as bad as you describe,' asked an inconspicuous young man at the end of one of the lectures, 'then why did you choose to become a Gypsy?' His image of Gypsies had marked them as a mere lifestyle, a fashion, a brand.

Their flag has two background colours: green representing the ground below, and blue for the sky above. In its centre it depicted a wheel: this symbolized the image of the Romani people as travellers and, resembling the 24-spoke wheel known as the Ashoka Chatra which features in the centre of the flag of India, it served as a reference to the Roms' historical country of origin.

I recall my Romani friend who drives from village to village to offer his services to potential clients and who claims, when asked about his origin, to be Irish or Italian. 'I make a living by denying who I am,' he says.

My mom always told me that the one thing that people make fun of you for when you're little, will be the one thing they'll respect you for when you get older.

we are the whole life that we have lived, its highs and lows, its fortunes and its hardships; we are the sum of the ghosts that haunt us...

And yet we were very much alike; we'd lost our souls, and we were ready to destroy others.

Chaque homme est son propre dieu. C'est en choisissant un autre qu'il se renie et devient aveugle et injuste.

Somewhere it is written that I was born to leave my home, to constantly leave, each time leaving a part of me behind.

What's a house when you've lost a country?' she says with a sigh.

I looked her up and down. She wouldn't meet my eyes. I didn't recognize her anymore. She was nothing like the image of her I had in my head. Her features meant nothing to me; she was someone else.

You can know all there is to know about life and mankind, but what do you really know about yourself?

The Jew is born as free as the wind, as indomitable as the Judean desert. Why did he mark the boundaries of his homeland so carelessly that it was nearly taken from him? Because for a long time he believed that the Promised Land is, first and foremost, the land where there's no wall to keep him from seeing farther than his cries can carry.

Des choses incroyables vous tombent dessus, détournent le cours de votre existence et le bouleversent de fond en comble. Vous avez beau fuir au bout du monde, vous réfugier là où personne ne risque de vous trouver, elles vous suivent à la trace comme une meute de chiens errants et font de vous quelqu'un qui ne vous ressemble en rien et qui devient la seule histoire que l'on retiendra de vous. Certains appellent ces choses "mektoub".

Nous sommes aussi l'ensemble des fantômes qui nous hantent... nous sommes plusieurs personnages en un, si convaincants dans les différents rôles que nous avons assumés qu'il nous est impossible de savoir lequel nous avons été vraiment, lequel nous sommes devenus, lequel nous survivra.

Whoever told you a man mustn't cry doesn't know what it means to be a man.... There's no shame in crying, my boy. Tears are the noblest things we have.

Les hommes sont ainsi faits ; si Dieu les a créés à Son image, Il n'a pas précisé laquelle.

Every Jew in Palestine is a bit of an Arab, and no Arab in Israel can deny that he's a little Jewish.

If I'm who I am because I'm who I am and you are who you are because you are who you are, then I'm who I am and you're who you are. If on the other hand, I am who I am because you're who you are, and if you're who you are because I'm who I am, then I am not who I am and you're not who you are....

To have nobody is to have not even yourself. Somebody loving you provides a certificate of existence. When a person feels alone, he can't exist without some small social fable.

Was it really some other person I was so anxious to discover...or was it only my own solitude that I could not abide?

I also believe I met William Gaddis once. He did not look Italian.

Society can serve its citizens only to the extent that it knows them.