I feel Anglo-American.

The person we believe ourselves to be will always act in a manner consistent with our self-image.

I don’t think culture is something you can describe.

Books are the treasured wealth of the world and the fit inheritance of generations and nations.

It is not part of a true culture to tame tigers, any more than it is to make sheep ferocious.

The ego is only an illusion, but a very influential one. Letting the ego-illusion become your identity can prevent you from knowing your true self. Ego, the false idea of believing that you are what you have or what you do, is a backwards way of assessing and living life.

For the introduction of a new kind of music must be shunned as imperiling the whole state; since styles of music are never disturbed without affecting the most important political institutions.

Culture: the cry of men in face of their destiny.

Call me Jonah. My parents did, or nearly did. They called me John.

I identify myself as a hustler since I was a young kid.

Many Tibetans sacrifice their lives.

I’m Mickey Mouse. They don’t know who’s inside the suit.

America means far more than a continent bounded by two oceans. It is more than pride of military power, glory in war, or in victory. It means more than vast expanse of farms, of great factories or mines, magnificent cities, or millions of automobiles and radios.

In the West, we have been withdrawing from our tradition-, religion-, and even nation-centred cultures.

I don’t look at myself as a commodity, but I’m sure a lot of people have.

I’m not concerned with people seeing me in a certain way. Some people see me as a kid, some people see me as an adult. But I’m seriously not going to complain how anybody sees me, as long as they see me.

The people of England are the most enthusiastic in the world.

When you call yourself an Indian or a Muslim or a Christian or a European or anything else, you are being violent. Do you see why it is violent? Because you are separating yourself from the rest of mankind. When you separate yourself by belief, by nationality, by tradition, it breeds violence.

Popular culture is a contradiction in terms. If it’s popular, it’s not culture.

I can simply tell you that since I was a kid, I didn’t like to look like anyone else.

The voice I use is a very old hardware speech synthesizer made in 1986. I keep it because I have not heard a voice I like better and because I have identified with it.

It is hard to be an individual in Japan.

Hong Kong is a wonderful, mixed-up town where you’ve got great food and adventure. First and foremost, it’s a great place to experience China in a relatively accessible way.

I’ve been called a moron since I was about four. My father called me a moron. My grandfather said I was a moron. And a lot of times when I’m driving, I hear I’m a moron. I like being a moron.

America is just downright mean.

I’d like to be known for more than being the guy in the big suit.

I don’t blame the average seventeen-year-old punk-rock kid for calling me a sellout. I understand that. And maybe when they grow up a little bit, they’ll realize there’s more things to life than living out your rock & roll identity so righteously.

A man may be so much of everything that he is nothing of anything.

I think being an atheist is something you are, not something you do.

I have visited Japan several times and have always been shown wonderful hospitality.

Hatred is something peculiar. You will always find it strongest and most violent where there is the lowest degree of culture.

The answer is, who you are cannot be defined through thinking or mental labels or definitions, because it’s beyond that. It is the very sense of being, or presence, that is there when you become conscious of the present moment. In essence, you and what we call the present moment are, at the deepest level, one.

In South Korea, they believe that when you turn 60, you’ve become a baby again and the rest of your life should be totally about joy and happiness, and people should leave you alone, and I just think that that’s the height of intelligence.

I happen to be a big fan of Western civilization; I think it beats the hell out of tyranny and starvation.

You definitely want your kids to understand their heritage, but I don’t want my kids to just focus on being black. They are people. I don’t want them to judge other people or to be judged. I want them to be good people, so good people will treat them accordingly. I preach that to my kids and everything else falls into place.

My upbringing in Canada made me the person I am. I will always be proud to be a Canadian.

I have dual citizenship, it just so happens I live in America.

Fashion is not something that exists in dresses only. Fashion is in the sky, in the street, fashion has to do with ideas, the way we live, what is happening.

To understand a name you must be acquainted with the particular of which it is a name.

I guess if I’m a product, either you’re chocolate, you’re vanilla or you’re butterscotch. You can’t be all three.

I feel like everything we do comes down to how it looks. Even no branding is branding. For example, you had no face or image to put to my music at first. That was branding.

Music is one of the most powerful things the world has to offer. No matter what race or religion or nationality or sexual orientation or gender that you are, it has the power to unite us.

I never wanted to be Marilyn – it just happened. Marilyn’s like a veil I wear over Norma Jeane.

Nobody in Singapore drinks Singapore Slings. It’s one of the first things you find out there. What you do in Singapore is eat. It’s a really food-crazy culture, where all of this great food is available in a kind of hawker-stand environment.

The question isn’t, ‚What do we want to know about people?‘, It’s, ‚What do people want to tell about themselves?‘

What is normal? Normal was yesterday. If you lose a leg, one day you’re hopping around on one leg, so you know the difference.

Bob Marley isn’t my name. I don’t even know my name yet.

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

But at any rate, the point is that God is what nobody admits to being, and everybody really is.

No matter the nationality, no matter the religion, no matter the ethnic background, America brings out the best in people.

I really love the culture of hip-hop.

I definitely think, generally, rap is misogynistic.

At twelve I looked like a girl of seventeen. My body was developed and shapely. I still wore the blue dress and the blouse the orphanage provided. They made me look like an overgrown lummox.

Many people in the western world are spoiled by the conveniences of our culture.

I long, as does every human being, to be at home wherever I find myself.

An identity would seem to be arrived at by the way in which the person faces and uses his experience.

Patriotism is usually stronger than class hatred, and always stronger than internationalism.

I read so much stuff that black women say, especially about my relationship. ‚Oh, he left his black wife to go be with some exotic chick.‘ First of all, my girl is black: she’s Jamaican.

Language is an intrinsic part of who we are and what has, for good or evil, happened to us.

We are born, so to speak, twice over; born into existence, and born into life; born a human being, and born a man.

I think that people just have this core desire to express who they are. And I think that’s always existed.