QuoteProject
In America, I'm a foreigner because of my Korean heritage. In Asia, because I was born in America, I'm a foreigner. I'm always a foreigner.
Margaret Cho
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

This quote reflects the feeling of being an outsider or foreigner in different cultures due to one's heritage.

Margaret Cho expresses the paradox of identity where, despite belonging to two cultures—American and Korean—she feels like a foreigner in both. This highlights the complexities of cultural identity and the challenges faced by those who straddle multiple worlds, feeling a sense of alienation in both.

Themes

IdentityForeignerCultureHeritageBelonging

In practice

Example use cases

This quote could be used in a speech about multiculturalism and the challenges of cultural identity.

More from Margaret Cho

It is tragic that people who are incarcerated are unable to vote. They are probably the most important voices to listen to because they can tell us what we need to change.
Margaret ChoRead
Being called ugly and fat and disgusting to look at from the time I could barely understand what the words meant has scarred me so deep inside that I have learned to hunt, stalk, claim, own and defend my own loveliness.
Margaret ChoRead
I've spent so much time feeling ugly and being treated as ugly as a result. But I changed my attitude and said, “I’m beautiful because I love everybody as much as I can. I’m beautiful because I have wonderful friends. And I’m beautiful because I say I am. I’ve earned it, and I’m gonna be it.
Margaret ChoRead
If public figures came out of the closet, then the LGBT kids who saw them on TV would feel safe, before they even knew why they felt dangerous. Maybe if enough people came out of the closet, gay kids would never feel dangerous. Maybe we could have a world where we could all just live. We may not all agree, but why can't we just all live?
Margaret ChoRead
I was like, Am I gay? Am I straight? And I realized...I'm just slutty. Where's my parade?
Margaret ChoRead
One place that I really feel comfortable is being a comedienne. I'm very socially inept. There's so many things that I can not do in life, and this is, like, the one thing that I have mastery over. It's my world. And anybody who's coming to the show, it's like they're coming because they know that this is my world.
Margaret ChoRead

Similar quotes

I was always a little unsteady in my self-belief. Then there was the Jewish thing. I love being Jewish, I have no problem with it at all. But it did become like a scar, with all these people saying you don't look it.
Lauren BacallRead
I'm not British. I'm not American. I'm not French. Whatever thing they practise, that is their business. I am an African. I am Rwandese.
Paul KagameRead
I'm Colombian and nothing will change that.
ShakiraRead
I knew that I was trans when I was three years old. Well, I didn't know 'trans' because I didn't know there was a word for it, but I just knew that in my head and my heart that I was supposed to be a girl.
Nicole MainesRead
For me, having a gender identity that was different from my sex assigned at birth and that wasn't seen by society felt like a constant feeling of homesickness - that unwavering ache in the pit of my stomach.
Sarah McbrideRead
Growing up, I knew I was different. But I didn't know what it meant to be Aboriginal. I just knew that I had a really big, extended family. I was taught nothing about who we were or where we came from.
Adam GoodesRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.