Laila Rouass Quotes

I come from the lower middle class, originally. We didn't have anything.

As someone who grew up in tough circumstances, I know that being on public assistance is not a spot that anyone wants to be in.

Like everyone, I am formed by my background, and mine was - well, we didn't have a lot of money. I didn't live in a cardboard box, but I did live in a place where, at the end of the week, the money was gone.

Very few people can afford to be poor.

Basically as a working class boy I understand when there's not enough money to put food on the table and not knowing where the next dollar comes in from. When you've been in that environment as a child, you never lose it.

I come from a poor family.

I grew up poor.

Like a lot of black people, I grew up straight po'. Wasn't no question about whether we was po', either. If you really wanted to know, all you had to do was look in our refrigerator.

My background's working class. My parents had to work to make ends meet. We don't come from any sense of privilege.

I don't come from money.

My parents didn't have any money.

My entire childhood was steeped in poverty. For me, poverty, in a way, was the first inspiration of my life, a commitment to do something for the poor.

I didn't have parents I could take a million dollars from. We were a lower-class family.

When I started, I had nothing. Because my family was really, really, really poor.

My mom didn't have a lot of money.

I didn't grow up in the slums or anything that dire, but I know what it is to grow up without having money or being able to support family.

You cannot understand what it means to be poor until you have suffered it.

I have way more experience being poor than I do having money.

I didn't have money growing up.

I'm proud that I've never stopped writing about being poor.

I was poor my whole life.

I grew up in a household where my mom made $16,000 a year. I know the struggle. I know how to keep those things in perspective, and I do keep it into perspective.

I was brought up on a council estate. I know what it's like to be poor.

I was having trouble making ends meet, and my beginnings weren't meeting either.

Poverty of course is no disgrace, but it is damned annoying.