This sense of multiple identities is something that Sen himself highlighted mischievously in his book Identity and Violence : “The same person can be, for example, a British citizen, of Malaysian origin, with Chinese racial characteristics, a stockbroker, a non-vegetarian, an asthmatic, a linguist, a bodybuilder, a poet, an opponent of abortion, a bird-watcher, an astrologer, and one who believes that God invented Darwin to test the gullible.”
这种多重身份的感觉正是Sen本人在他的著作《身份和暴力》顽皮地宣扬的：“同一个人可以是，比如说，一个英国公民，出生于马来西亚，有着中国人的种族特征，一个股票经纪人，一个非素食主义者，一个气喘病患者，一个通晓几种语言的人，一个参加健身运动的人，一个诗人，一个反对堕胎者，一个占星学家，以及一个相信是上帝创造了达尔文以便测试轻信者的人。