Leah Remini Quotes

In Long Island, people care about how much money you have. Even I did when I was growing up. I never wanted kids to see my mom's house because I was embarrassed that they'd tell everyone, 'Oh, Madison's mom is poor!' And she was definitely far from poor.

I was the child at school in second-hand or handmade clothes and, as I grew older, I craved material wealth, a big house and designer clothes.

By vulgarity I mean that vice of civilization which makes man ashamed of himself and his next of kin, and pretend to be somebody else.

Class isn't something you buy. Look at you. You have a $500 suit on and you're still a lowlife.

We were poor. My mother got our clothes out of the free box at the church, you know? So much of when you're a kid is about relating about what you watch on TV. And who's got these cooler shoes, and 'Let's trade lunches.' And I was just like, 'I don't have a television. I have a rock and a piece of tofu.'

That's mind-blowing to me that people would say that because you have nice things, you're soft. No, you're soft because your culture is soft.

Rewards are directly proportional to the suspect and his peers' status in society: $100,000 was offered in the Moxley case. It meant nothing to millionaires.

With the greater part of rich people, the chief enjoyment of riches consists in the parade of riches.

Do not mistake a crowd of big wage-earners for the leisure class.

Am I allowed to call myself working-class now? Because obviously I'm now very rich.

I am quite amazed how, when people earn lots of money, they think they have to spend it on things that give them access to the club constituted by the people who are in their tax bracket.

I went to a private Jewish school before high school, and a lot of the kids had beautiful homes, but my parents don't really care about those kinds of things.

False shame accompanies a man that is poor, shame that either harms a man greatly or profits him; shame is with poverty, but confidence with wealth.

Everyone is encouraged to see their lives, the world through the eyes of the rich.

Wealthy people have not disappeared, they are just not so willing to show off their wealth.

In Europe, you would almost never have people with large amounts of income being happy with a two-volume vehicle like a hatchback or a minivan. They want to structurally show their societal position, which is why three volumes are so popular. They show 'I'm part of that hierarchy.'

My parents came from different backgrounds. My father's was grander than my mother's, so my mother had... to put up with the disapproval of my father's relations.

I've always been interested in this idea of a privileged life, probably because it's something I hadn't seen much of.

There's often an assumption you're more privileged if you belong to a family with people who have made a success.

I don't live with the 'right' people. I don't want to. I don't want to live with the rich in Beverly Hills or walk the streets of Hollywood. I want to go to K-mart and get good deals.

Rich people in poor places want to show off their wealth. And their less affluent counterparts feel pressure to fake it, at least in public. Nobody wants the stigma of being thought poor.

I am fairly classless because it is very difficult to class someone who comes from a mixed marriage.

Clothes make the poor invisible. America has the best-dressed poverty the world has ever known.

If you read the 'Daily Mail,' you would imagine that the British middle classes lead lives of unremitting misery.

I don't want there to be this separation between the rich and poor. I may be part of the three percent because I've been fortunate and done well for myself, but I will never forget about the 97 percent. That was me growing up. I was so poor I dreamt about being just 'regular poor,' not 'poor, poor.'