Auberon Waugh Quotes

Many black people I know are proud of the Irish part of their heritage - an Irish grandparent, say - but they recognise that many people believe in a form of racial purity. And it is from that belief that prejudice starts.

I am Chinese - it doesn't matter what other people say.

I am not an African. I am an American.

The Africans know I'm not an African. I'm an American.

What about a white South African who comes here from Africa. Is he an African American?

Ethnicity and tribe begin precisely where taxes and sovereignty end.

I have often said I come from a family of unreliable narrators. I tend to believe their struggles with racism, identity, nationality do dovetail with my motivation to write.

Irish people never think we're Irish. Americans think we're European or French.

You may baptize as long as you want, but the Jew remains a Jew, the Chinese a Chinese and the Negro a Negro.

I don't call myself Latin, I call myself Puerto Rican.

I'm certainly proud to be Cuban American, and it's a fantastic opportunity for anybody - regardless of their ethnicity or nationality. It does carry a measure or pride to know where you're from and to know what your roots are.

Well, I'm Czech, but Polish, Czech, no matter, it's my name.

Irish Americans are no more Irish than Black Americans are Africans.

I'm Irish, yeah, but I don't need to get up on a soapbox about it.

I mean, a Mexican boy couldn't be anything else but an Indian. And why did you take the name of Quinn, they used to say to me. Hey, you're an Indian, so I played Indians.

I have two Filipino nannies who have British passport and not me. I don't need British passport. When you were running around in an animal skin, my ancestors were building the pyramids.

I'm of Arab background.

Most of all, I dislike this idea nowadays that if you're a black person in America, then you must be called African-American. Listen, I've visited Africa, and I've got news for everyone: I'm not an African.

Being Indian is not blood as much as it is culture.

I think of myself as being Jewish and Irish, despite the fact that I'm English.

We are Englishmen; that is one good fact.

You carry your country with you, it's part of your baggage.

Jews have had to carry around their own sense of self in a carpet bag and I think perhaps too much emphasis might be being put on nationality and on the other hand patriotism, that sort of thing.

I'm half Jewish, half Scottish. It's hard for me to buy anything.

It's a complicated issue, but I define myself as an American, primarily.