American Gypsy Quotes

“But if with time, when a maze of wrinkles claims my skin and the neighborhood strays purr at the sound of my footsteps; long after I've loved eagerly and hated without shame -- if even then I am unchanged, unfound, well, perhaps that is simply because I never lost myself in the first place. And that would be just fine by me.”
― Oksana Marafioti, American Gypsy

“Before I left, he said, 'Nothing in this life remains unchanged, o meu menino. Not even mountains.”
― Oksana Marafioti, American Gypsy

“I was an impostor; a half-breed trapped between two vibrant cultures, never allowed a choice without guilt.”
― Oksana Marafioti, American Gypsy

“Even Soviet love songs were first and foremost propaganda, ballads of metalworkers or farmers who loved their country first and each other second.”
― Oksana Marafioti, American Gypsy

“Most of us give little thought to the importance or the meaning of a homeland. Not until we ourselves are foreigners fighting for acceptance, stripped of all ranks and titles and viewed as inferiors, do we miss that privilege.”
― Oksana Marafioti, American Gypsy

“Perhaps this view has to do with the beginnings of modern America, which are to me, like the big bang theory, violent and wonderous. No one was safe from hatred and betrayal. Everyone was fighting to survive. It seemed the American Gypsies weren't immune to the neck-breaking race for what became the American Dream. Like so many others, they were more than willing to cut their roots in order to stake their claim on prosperity. Could that be the reason the American Gypsies largely escaped the more malevolent prejudices their European counterparts suffered?”
― Oksana Marafioti, American Gypsy