If certain books are to be termed 'immigrant fiction,' what do we call the rest? Native fiction? Puritan fiction? This distinction doesn't agree with me.
Jhumpa LahiriRead
I have two passports because I have to have at least one, and I really don't know how I define myself. And I feel that as I get older, I feel very fortunate to have, on paper, a dual nationality.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote reflects the complexity of personal identity and the privilege of holding dual nationality.
Jhumpa Lahiri expresses the multifaceted nature of identity through her experience of holding two passports. As she ages, she recognizes the significance of her dual nationality, which not only represents a legal status but also encapsulates her personal journey in navigating different cultural landscapes and the sense of belonging that comes with it.
Themes
IdentityNationalityBelongingCultureSelf-Definition
In practice
Example use cases
This quote could be used during a discussion on identity at a cultural event.
More from Jhumpa Lahiri
All quotes →When I sit down to write, I don't think about writing about an idea or a given message. I just try to write a story which is hard enough.
Jhumpa LahiriRead
When I am experiencing a complex story or novel, the broader planes, and also details, tend to fall away.
Jhumpa LahiriRead
I think each time you start a story or novel or whatever, you are absolutely at the bottom of the ladder all over again. It doesn't matter what you've done before.
Jhumpa LahiriRead
The sky was different, without color, taut and unforgiving. But the water was the most unforgiving thing, nearly black at times, cold enough, I knew, to kill me, violent enough to break me apart. The waves were immense, battering rocky beaches without sand. The farther I went, the more desolate it became, more than any place I'd been, but for this very reason the landscape drew me, claimed me as nothing had in a long time.
Jhumpa LahiriRead
On the technical side, I hope that my writing is evolving and maturing, ripening, deepening.
Jhumpa LahiriRead
Similar quotes
I feel most colored when I am thrown against a sharp white background........Beside the waters of the Hudson" I feel my race. Among the thousand white persons, I am a dark rock surged upon, and overswept, but through it all, I remain myself. When covered by the waters, I am; and the ebb but reveals me again." How It Feels to Be Colored Me
Zora Neale HurstonRead
I think, as a kid, turning on the television and seeing that everyone seemed to be wealthy and white made me feel like an outsider, lesser than. I was not wealthy. I was not white.
Jacqueline WoodsonRead
I'm of African descent and my sister looks completely black, but I didn't look black. I was the super-nerdy kid who was also willing to fight.
Junot DiazRead
I don't know what I am if I'm not a woman.
Marsha P. JohnsonRead
I've often felt like an outsider, not necessarily because I'm Korean, an immigrant, or female. I think writers are odd people.
Min Jin LeeRead
The mark of a Scot of all classes [is that] he ... remembers and cherishes the memory of his forebears, good or bad; and there burns alive in him a sense of identity with the dead even to the twentieth generation.
Robert Louis StevensonRead