American Quote by Lawrence Wright

When I was 17, I came to the U.S. to study Middle Eastern history and politics at Columbia University.

— Julia Bacha

I graduated with a foreign affairs/Middle East studies degree with a minor in Arabic from UVA in 2002.

— Margaret Brennan

My real education began when I entered the University of Chicago in September 1951 as a graduate student.

— James Cronin

I'm a Muslim Egyptian-American, born in Cairo. I grew up in Kuwait until the first Gulf War, when my family relocated to the United…

— Rana el Kaliouby

I went to graduate school at Harvard for one year I worked in the state legislature in Sacramento for one year. I taught school…

— Harry Shearer

I finally returned to Iran in 1979, when I got my degree in English and American literature, and stayed for 18 years in the Islamic republic.

— Azar Nafisi

My family settled in Cairo in 1980. I was nine. I missed Libya terribly, but I also took to Cairo. I perfected the accent.…

— Hisham Matar

I now teach at American University and the University of Virginia

— Julian Bond

I was the first person to go to university from my family.

— Ellie Goulding

I left Israel to work as a model, to just make money - I didn't care if I was doing an ad for toilet…

— Moran Atias

When I was 17, I went to Brigham Young University. That was the first time I had set foot in a classroom.

— Tara Westover

I actually graduated two years early.

— Ava Michelle