Share
×
Inspirational Quotes
Authors
Professions
Topics
Tags
Quote
In the United States, we want to believe we will never become a country of refugees.
Nguyen Viet Thang
Share
Change background
T
T
T
Change font
Original
TAGS & TOPICS
Nguyen Viet Thang
Believe
Never
Refugees
Refugee
United
Become
States
Country
More quotes by Nguyen Viet Thang
My identity is deeply intertwined with being a refugee because that's the first experience that I remember.
Nguyen Viet Thang
Every new refugee to a society, whether it's the United States or some other place, is subjected to fear. They are the new outsider population, the new other.
Nguyen Viet Thang
I've never stopped being a refugee.
Nguyen Viet Thang
Refugees, especially in their early years, are still caught up in the experience that made them refugees. And they're much more melancholic. They're much more oriented towards the past and towards the country of origin. That can make the process of becoming a part of the new country much more fraught for them.
Nguyen Viet Thang
When I was growing up, I cared very little for the customs of my parents, the special things that we're supposed to do as Vietnamese people. But now that I am a parent, I go out of my way to make sure that my son goes to visit his grandparents and participates in customs like the Lunar New Year celebration.
Nguyen Viet Thang
Refugees have been displaced by war or natural disaster or political catastrophes, and they are much more threatening because they are reminders to people that all the comforts that we take for granted can be taken away in just a moment.
Nguyen Viet Thang
You have to wear a different face when you're interacting with the larger culture. And you can be more of yourself at home or in the local market or in the local church speaking your own language. That was my sense growing up as a Vietnamese refugee in San Jose.
Nguyen Viet Thang
Hollywood in many ways serves as the unofficial ministry of propaganda for the United States.
Nguyen Viet Thang
If you're a so-called minority writer, the temptation is to write for the majority... I refuse to do that.
Nguyen Viet Thang
Refugees are threatening, not just to Americans, but also in many countries the world over. And it's partially because, unlike immigrants, refugees do not choose where they're going to go or why they're fleeing, and they are unwanted populations. They bring with them the stigma of disaster.
Nguyen Viet Thang
I think all immigrants and refugees are preoccupied with memories to one degree or another. But again, this question of how much to remember and how much to forget is really aggravated for those who have lost a tremendous amount.
Nguyen Viet Thang
The refugees are not only going to be a demand on the country's resources, but also the refugees raise the possibility that the countries that they're going to are themselves not as stable as the citizens would like, I think. We're all just one catastrophe away from ending up as a refugee, and we don't want to be reminded of that.
Nguyen Viet Thang
No one wants for their child to become a refugee. It's an awful experience.
Nguyen Viet Thang
By college, I had a really grand, preposterous vision of myself as becoming a writer, but I don't think I had the discipline or the patience - or the ability or the humility. It took 20 years to acquire those things.
Nguyen Viet Thang