Cultural Flexibility Quotes

Company cultures are like country cultures. Never try to change one. Try, instead, to work with what you've got.

In America, we can reinvent ourselves - we're encouraged to.

Being multiracial has allowed me to feel comfortable walking in all different circles.

The Englishman's strong point is his vigorous insularity; that of the American his power of adaptation. Each of these attitudes has its perils. The Englishman stands firmly on his feet, but he who merely does this never advances. The American's disposition is to step forward even at the risk of a fall.

My parents were born abroad. I was born in France, but I feel comfortable everywhere - I don't see the borders.

My mom used to call me a parrot, because the way I spoke would change in every country we'd go to.

India survived through the centuries by combining cultural imperviousness with extraordinary psychological skill.

Writing in another language gives me an additional freedom, an additional way of thinking. It's a challenge, but I like the challenge.

I've always considered myself to be a travelling soul. I've never felt out of place anywhere.

I think the British have the distinction above all other nations of being able to put new wine into old bottles without bursting them.

A culture must be reasonably stable, but it must also change, and it will presumably be strongest if it can avoid excessive respect for tradition and fear of novelty on the one hand and excessively rapid change on the other.

The Chinese move very slowly. Our customs are so fixed that it takes much time to change them.

I'm a third-culture child. It's an interesting concept. Having an American father, a South American mother, born in England, grew up in Hong Kong, went to school in Europe - it makes me a third-culture child, which means you take on the culture of the place where you live. So I'm very adaptable.

I'm saddened to see that everyone's pitched out the baby with the bath, in that we say that it can't be one or the other, it could be both. I mean, just because we listen to classical music doesn't mean that we can't listen to jazz.

I come from a culture where we wear white for weddings. In India, it's different. But I really feel that there should be no set notions, and a bride should only wear something when she's comfortable in it.

Washington is still very much a male-oriented culture. Being from Los Angeles, I think it is less so there - there is less attachment to tradition, perhaps, there is more flexibility, more acceptance of change generally. That is partly because of Hollywood.

I'm a chameleon when it comes to languages.

Contemporary culture is like the weather - we have to be open to it. I don't like the way it is dismissed or closed down.

I always used to say hybrids would rule the world - people who have an understanding of many cultures and can relate to them with ease. And then along came Obama.

Listen - God only exists in people's minds. Especially in Japan, God's always been kind of a flexible concept. Look at what happened after the war. Douglas MacArthur ordered the divine emperor to quit being God, and he did, making a speech saying he was just an ordinary person. So after 1946 he wasn't God anymore. That's what Japanese gods are like--they can be tweaked and adjusted. Some American comping on a cheap pipe gives the order and presto change-o--God's no longer God. A very postmodern kind of thing. If you think God's there, He is. If you don't, He isn't.

He who cannot eat horsemeat need not do so. Let him eat pork. But he who cannot eat pork, let him eat horsemeat. It's simply a question of taste.

Also because I'm ambiguously ethnic looking, you know, I come to New York and I can be anything. People generally think I'm half of whatever they are.

Often culture gets stuck in static, traditional narratives. Contemporary ideas give culture elasticity, flexibility, which is always a breath of fresh air. But these ideas shouldn't only be for people who can afford to go to a museum or a symposium in the "better part of town."

It’s a matter of time; you adapt to the different culture and different way of life. Human beings are adaptable.

Whether I go to English-speaking countries or non-English-speaking countries I can just modulate to what works for them.