"When asked if I consider myself Buddhist, the answer is, Not really. But it's more my religion than any other because I was brought up with it in an intellectual and spiritual environment. I don't practice or preach it, however"
About this Quote
Uma Thurman’s careful “Not really” does the most work here: it’s a preemptive refusal of the celebrity soundbite that turns faith into branding. She’s answering a question designed to produce a label, and she sidesteps it with a distinction between inheritance and adherence. “More my religion than any other” isn’t a conversion story; it’s a claim about atmosphere. Buddhism is framed less as a set of doctrines than as a childhood climate, an “intellectual and spiritual environment” that shaped her reflexes even if it never became a routine.
The subtext is about legitimacy and permission. Public figures are often expected to either perform devotion or disavow it completely. Thurman chooses a third lane: belonging without the costume. By explicitly saying she doesn’t “practice or preach,” she signals she’s not selling anything, not recruiting, not trying to score depth points. That matters in a culture where “Buddhist” can become shorthand for being chill, enlightened, or aesthetically minimalist. She’s wary of that flattening.
There’s also a quiet nod to the modern Western relationship to Buddhism: for many, it arrives through family, therapy-adjacent mindfulness, or artistic circles rather than a temple community. Her phrasing keeps the door open to influence without claiming authority. It’s an ethical move as much as a personal one: she won’t take the identity if she can’t stand behind the practice. In the celebrity context, that restraint reads like integrity.
The subtext is about legitimacy and permission. Public figures are often expected to either perform devotion or disavow it completely. Thurman chooses a third lane: belonging without the costume. By explicitly saying she doesn’t “practice or preach,” she signals she’s not selling anything, not recruiting, not trying to score depth points. That matters in a culture where “Buddhist” can become shorthand for being chill, enlightened, or aesthetically minimalist. She’s wary of that flattening.
There’s also a quiet nod to the modern Western relationship to Buddhism: for many, it arrives through family, therapy-adjacent mindfulness, or artistic circles rather than a temple community. Her phrasing keeps the door open to influence without claiming authority. It’s an ethical move as much as a personal one: she won’t take the identity if she can’t stand behind the practice. In the celebrity context, that restraint reads like integrity.
Quote Details
| Topic | Faith |
|---|
More Quotes by Uma
Add to List
