Cultural Divides Quotes

I am branded in Quebec as a traitor to the French, and in Ontario as a traitor to the English. In Quebec I am branded as a Jingo, and in Ontario as a separatist. In Quebec I am attacked is an imperialists, and in Ontario as an anti-imperialist. I am neither. I am a Canadian.

You don't mess with politics and religion. Leave it alone. People get upset at that sometimes.

I don't see us winning the war. We have made enemies of one billion Muslims.

The violence in the world comes about because we human beings are forever creating barriers between men who are like us and men who are not like us.

It's very hard to talk about Palestine to Jewish people - they see me as a betrayer.

Lots of things wrong with America, but Hitler ain't going to fix them.

My big subject as a historian is how Americans divide themselves. What are the divisions that structure our political lives. Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan were perfect foils for that story.

The world in the '90s had seemed somewhat stable. There was talk of the end of history, a calm consensus around where we were all going. Consumer capitalism with some sort of social conscience. Then 9/11 happened, and that illusion was blown out of the water.

If you know anything about the issues in our country, you know we have a lot of deep-rooted anger and anxieties that spark a lot of passion. When you talk about our national anthem or the flag or race relations or the criminal justice system, it brings up a lot of those fears and insecurities.

Some of the worst violence in the world today between estranged religious and ethnic groups happens not on the battlefields. It happens smack in the middle of living rooms and between people who share a lot, who have a lot in common.

Yet, in spite of this world-wide system of linkages, there is, at this very moment, a general feeling that communication is breaking down everywhere, on an unparalleled scale.

I honestly think that it automatically hurts me if I said that I supported the war in Iraq and I support the troops. That automatically kills me for getting a bunch of movies, a bunch of TV shows. People don't want to hear from me.

The left and right are not religious categories. They're often not even value categories.

There are, however, those who have called the book [The Kite Runner] divisive and objected to some of the issues raised in the book, namely racism, discrimination, ethnic inequality etc.

We are so isolated in our own little worlds, in our own little geographies, that it's pretty hard to understand where someone else is coming from. And so I think that we have to really think about what that means as a country and, frankly, whether this segregation that we have is durable over the long run.

Extremists and populist movements are exploiting people's fear of those who are not like us. We can see the consequences in the form of terrorism and racially motivated violence.

In 2003, I wrote a New York Times best-seller called 'Shut Up & Sing,' in which I criticized celebrities like the Dixie Chicks & Barbra Streisand who were trashing then-President George W. Bush. I have used a variation of that title for more than 15 years to respond to performers who sound off on politics.

When you're dealing with the Middle East, 2000 years is the normal wait for something to happen.

Every Arab nation votes against us at least two thirds of the time.

I've always known that there are conflicting issues going on where I'm from. It's always been that way.

I believe the world is increasingly in danger of becoming split into groups which cannot communicate with each other, which no longer think of each other as members of the same species.

There are trends in our societies... that can lead to some political decisions in America and in Europe that can give some ground to the radicalization discourse.

Seriously, our nation is never going to be on the same page on issues like gun control, welfare, the economy, the environment, etc. I doubt we'll ever come to terms on tastes great or less filling and hybrids versus Hummers, and there will always be Yankees fans and Red Sox fans, and never the 'twain shall meet. Fortunately, all it takes for us to be of one mind is some buttercream frosting.

The United States, we know what happens when we start dividing ourselves along lines of race or religion or ethnicity.

If you look over the course of a hundred years, I think the gradual erosion of the consensus that's held our country together is probably more serious than a few bearded terrorists who fly into buildings.