Expat Life Quotes

“It wasn’t hard to understand. Mexican women are something special. They learn early on that men are subservient to them. They are trained by their mothers in the use of this power over these lowly creatures.”
― Anthony Lee Head, Driftwood: Stories from the Margarita Road

“I recognised just how different Alexander was from children raised in Britain. The most obvious distinctions were his maturity and broadness of view. He hadn't lost his innocence or childish ability to play, but he enjoyed conversations with adults, and he saw no problem in playing with any child of any age. He was wonderfully gentle with the little ones. He was never fazed by differences, and cultural diversity was of interest rather than a reason for prejudice, though, - like our Nepali friends - he liked to classify people.”
― Jane Wilson-Howarth, A Glimpse of Eternal Snows: A Journey of Love and Loss in the Himalayas

“What if we are all simply lost souls blown off course, just trying to get home?”
― Anthony Lee Head, Driftwood: Stories from the Margarita Road

“Life down here is kind of a permanent Halloween where you choose a costume more fitting for your self-image than reality could ever offer. Do you want to be a captain or a cowboy? No problem. People will call you by whatever title or name you choose. You say you’re a reincarnated pirate queen or the abandoned love child of a famous entertainer? That’s fine with me. We believe each other’s stories about who we were and who we are. Being an expat means you can have a whole new life. It’s a little like being in the Witness Relocation Program only with flip flops and margaritas.”
― Anthony Lee Head, Driftwood: Stories from the Margarita Road

“If you are gone [from your homeland] for fifteen years, you will not return. Even if you return, you will not return.”
― Bruno Bettelheim

“Sure, people stare… I think it’s curiosity. Most of the time if I give a big smile, the person looks totally shocked to have been caught and will smile back. They go from a sort of blankness to this welling gladness. Women especially blossom into joy and will give really lovely, open smiles in return, with a ilhamdallah or masha’allah and a pat on the head or a pinched cheek for Mather, maybe a few words for me, Welcome to Jordan! They’re so surprised and grateful I’m smiling at them! Even women who are fully covered, just a tiny window for their eyes peeking from a veil. You can see the uplift in the corners of their eyelids, feel their genuine warmth”
― Siobhan Fallon, The Confusion of Languages

“Many expats I know love so-called Third World countries. Many do not mind settling and getting married there while the locals in those countries are escaping in all directions. The reason is simple: expats are treated better than local citizens in such countries, and even better than in their own so-called industrialized countries in the 'developed' world.”
― Louis Yako, Bullets in Envelopes: Iraqi Academics in Exile

“De aici incolo incepe un alt capitol. Transparenta insa e inca prezenta. Ce inveti, ca imigrant, e sa traiesti cu ea. Bucati din tine traiesc inca acolo de unde ai plecat. Niciun job, nicio relatie, nicio poezie in cafenea nu te va reumple destul cat sa fii plin. Iar asta nu e deloc rau. Mereu trebuie sa lasi loc de necunoscut, sa ai un grad de fragilitate care sa te faca real, puternic, prezent. Un cub cu un colt sfaramat, cum zicea Nichita. Dar s-a scris vreodata o poezie despre un cub perfect? Imperfectiunea, lipsa, nevoia e necesara sa te impinga mereu, singur, mai departe, in vreme ce te bucuri de necunoscut ca un copil pe-un balansoar scartaind.”
― Silvia Marinescu, Barem identitar. Prejudecăți colective, realități personale

“Oh sure, there was a gringo gulch where the sunbirds lived in the winter months. But if you avoided them, you might hook up with the small community of Margarita Road refugees: a group of wanderers from up north; a crazy Irish sailor; a few Italians; some young, fast-living kids from Mexico City; and one beautiful girl from Brazil. All in all, it was a nice place to stay—or hide, if that’s what you needed.”
― Anthony Lee Head, Driftwood: Stories from the Margarita Road

“The Margarita Road isn’t just about flip flops and late-night beach parties. Running away can be hard work.”
― Anthony Lee Head, Driftwood: Stories from the Margarita Road

“He kept ordering beers and making what he thought were humorous jokes about how Mexicans sleep all day, all the while telling me how great my life was without a ‘real job.’ After an hour or so of this, I was ready to pour the next drink over his head.”
― Anthony Lee Head, Driftwood: Stories from the Margarita Road

“This wasn't the France I knew, which had always been as much about swimming in the sea as about anything else, about languorous holiday sunshine and whole days spent drinking wine and staring up at the clouds. No, this country seemed to be offering something dark and strange and new to me, in an entirely different language. If only I could learn to understand it.”
― Paula McLain, Love and Ruin

“I’ve heard that you’re in the pain business. I don’t like doing work for that kind of man,” said Vincent Calvino. Casey rolled his neck and a small cracking noise echoed from the bones inside. “If you worked only for people you liked, you wouldn’t cover your rent.”
― Christopher G. Moore

“The Bangkok Comfort Zone - that strip running between Patpong, Soi Cowboy and Nana - was a huge bank of ice, thick as a glacier. Only you had to be around years and years to see and feel the deep chill, and by the time you had it was too late, the glacier had already dragged you under.”
― Christopher G. Moore, Comfort Zone

“Gostaria de correr. Brincar com outros filhotes. Ter uma mãe. Fundir-se à savana. Mas a savana está distante, muito longe. Para ele, é uma terra proibida. Encontra-se em perpétuo exílio, uma criança nascida sozinha. Nem sabe se um dia voltará para a África. Nem sabe se já esteve lá. [...] O elefantinho do Bernini da Piazza della Minerva é um dos melhores amigos que tenho em Roma. Para mim, aquele elefantinho é somali. Tem o mesmo olhar dos exilados. E também a mesma irreverência. [...] Com o tempo, descobri que aquele elefantinho tem o mesmo olhar da minha mãe. Não pode voltar, não pode saciar a sede da sua angústia. O exilado é uma criatura dividida. As raízes foram arrancadas, a vida foi mutilada, a esperança eviscerada, o princípio separado, a identidade despida. Parece não ter sobrado nada. Ameaças, dentes crispados, maldade. [...] Minha mãe viveu muitos lampejos. Antes de ser arrancada da Somália, alguém a havia arrancado da mata. De nômade foi forçada a se tornar sedentária. E todas as vezes teve que reinventar-se, teve que redesenhar o seu mapa. Aquele lampejo que vejo em minha mãe e no elefantinho do Bernini são as histórias que nadam em seus ventres. Afinal de contas, se vocês se aproximarem de uma somali ou de um somali, é isso que vão receber: histórias. Histórias para o dia e histórias para a noite. Para vigília, para o sono... para os sonhos.”
― Igiaba Scego, La mia casa è dove sono

“We live here as if we were never leaving.”
― Julia Firley, The Capital of the Superficial

“RENAULT
I have often speculated on why you do not return to America. Did you abscond with the church funds? Did you run off with the President's wife? I should like to think you killed a man. It is the romantic in me.

RICK
It was a combination of all three.

RENAULT
And what in Heaven's name brought you to Casablanca?

RICK
My health. I came to Casablanca for the waters.

RENAULT
Waters? What waters? We are in the desert.

RICK
I was misinformed.”
― Aljean Harmetz, Round Up the Usual Suspects: The Making of Casablanca--Bogart, Bergman, and World War II

“Being an expat can complicate your feelings about being American. We tend to possess an assumed superiority that I only noticed when it was punctured. I was also jarred by the commercialism that could engulf anything in the United States. Everything from a McDonald's Happy Meal to a spider exhibit at New York's Museum of Natural History was a marketing opportunity for the latest Hollywood blockbuster. I was overwhelmed by the simple act of walking into a grocery store, blinking under the bright fluorescent lights, and staring at the massive, overstocked aisles.”
― Alan Paul, Big in China: My Unlikely Adventures Raising a Family, Playing the Blues, and Becoming a Star in Beijing

“Every border I crossed blurred another line inside me — between who I was, and who I was becoming.”
― Yoon Jeong Kim, The South Korean Diplomat's Wife: Stories of Silk Dresses, Scandals, and Secrets

“Diplomacy lives not in offices, but in the small collisions of everyday life - at dinner tables, school gates, and moments of quiet reflection.”
― Yoon Jeong Kim

“Diplomacy lives not in offices, but in the small collisions of everyday life - at dinner tables, school gates, and moments of quiet reflection.”
― Yoon Jeong Kim, The South Korean Diplomat's Wife: Stories of Silk Dresses, Scandals, and Secrets

“Marriage abroad is never just love across cultures - it is survival though translation.”
― Yoon Jeong Kim, The South Korean Diplomat's Wife: Stories of Silk Dresses, Scandals, and Secrets

“What feels polite in one language can sound evasive in another - misunderstanding is often our first shared culture.”
― Yoon Jeong Kim, The South Korean Diplomat's Wife: Stories of Silk Dresses, Scandals, and Secrets

“Midlife isn’t a crisis. It’s a comeback.”
― Bree Penfold, Lola Bloom The Flamingo Diaries: A Midlife Memoir-in-Motion

“Maybe midlife isn’t the crisis we joke about. Maybe it’s the moment you finally stop waiting—for permission, for perfection, for the "right" time.”
― Bree Penfold, Lola Bloom The Flamingo Diaries: A Midlife Memoir-in-Motion

“I used to think healing meant fixing yourself. But maybe it’s just about feeling yourself again. Messy. Leaky. Alive.”
― Bree Penfold, Lola Bloom The Flamingo Diaries: A Midlife Memoir-in-Motion

“Midlife shouldn’t be the end of youth. It should be the beginning of giving zero f*cks and finally doing life our way.”
― Bree Penfold, Lola Bloom The Flamingo Diaries: A Midlife Memoir-in-Motion

“There’s no way I’m only meant to be a mom and wife. There’s got to be more in store for me, right?”
― Bree Penfold, Lola Bloom The Flamingo Diaries: A Midlife Memoir-in-Motion

“Maybe it’s not about being seen. Maybe it’s about finally seeing yourself.”
― Bree Penfold, Lola Bloom The Flamingo Diaries: A Midlife Memoir-in-Motion

“Midlife doesn’t feel like a fork in the road. It feels like a goddamn roundabout.”
― Bree Penfold, Lola Bloom The Flamingo Diaries: A Midlife Memoir-in-Motion