V. S. Naipaul Quotes

In America, we all come from somewhere else, and we carry along some dream myth of home: a notion that something - our point of origin, our roots, the home country - is out there.

Our old stories happen to be your new stories. The stories that you're seeing as immigrant stories are your grandparents' stories, are your great-grandparents' stories. You just happen to be separated from them a little bit.

My mother was from West Bromwich; my grandfather was Pakistani. I had an aunt who started trying to trace the family tree and stopped when she saw what turned up.

My father's father came from Russia; my mother came from Romania.

My family is Anglo-Indian, and of the four children, I'm the only one who wasn't born in India.

It's probably worth noting that although I'm ethnically Greek, my grandfather was actually born in Turkey and came through Greece on his way to the United States.

My family immigrated when I was 3, and our predecessors inhabited the Korean Peninsula for as long as can be recalled.

I think a lot of Americans forget that they are not originally from here, that somebody in their past was a refugee.

Let's treasure our roots, even when we're far away.

My roots go back to West Africa, but my last name is Kirby, which is not an African name.

The thing that always attracted me to New York was the sense of being in a place where a lot of people had a lot of stories not unlike mine. Everybody comes from somewhere else. Everyone's got a Polish grandmother, some kind of metamorphosis in their family circumstances. That's a very big thing - the experience of not living where you started.

I'm German in my mind, but from a Germany that doesn't exist any more.

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.

My family's journey is something I am very proud of - in front of me, behind me and every part.

My ancestors come from a part of southern China where most villages can trace their roots back at least a thousand years or even more. However, as a typical American, I have lived in four cities and moved at least seven times.

All I ever want is to return to either Bangladesh, my motherland, or India, my adopted home.

I've always known that my father's father and grandfather and grandmother were from Mexico. I've never denied it. I've always said it.

You don't stumble upon your heritage. It's there, just waiting to be explored and shared.

My grandparents all came from Lithuania to South Africa.

I've known where my heritage is from all along.

My father is 100% Japanese and came to the United States when he was only 18 years old. My grandmother still resides in Japan, which has allowed me to travel to the roots of my ancestors with my father.

I am trying to persuade my family to spend more time in China. It's no fun to be in exile. I can't even figure out the basic 26 letters, let alone operate, in English. I often feel that although I've found the sky of freedom above my head, I've lost the soil I stand on. I need to be back in my motherland, where I can find inspirations.

I have a sense that many Americans, especially those like me with European or foreign parents, feel they have to invent their families just as they have to invent themselves.

I never wanted to change countries; it's something that is part of me.

Often, I think, displaced people imagine themselves leading double lives. So a portion of my identity has always been privately siphoned into what would have been if I had stayed in Wisconsin.