"After all, we are not French and never can be, and any attempt to be so is to deny our inheritance and to try to impose upon ourselves a character that can be nothing but a veneer upon the surface"

This quote by Edward Hopper talks to the idea of national identity and the importance of accepting one's own heritage. Hopper is suggesting that it is futile to attempt to be something that one is not, which any attempt to do so is to reject one's own identity and heritage. He is stressing the importance of being true to oneself and accepting one's own culture and background. He is likewise recommending that any effort to be something other than what one is, is simply a superficial veneer that will not last. Hopper's words are a suggestion to be happy with one's own identity and to accept and welcome it, rather than trying to be something that one is not.