Richard Russo Quotes

Class still matters in Britain today.

Class structures are a luxury that we cannot afford.

Of all the hokum with which this country [America] is riddled, the most odd is the common notion that it is free of class distinctions.

Colour is not the issue in America; class is.

And I am interested in the fact that class is very much a factor in America, even though it's not supposed to be.

The rich don’t want the poor to get ahead of them.

It is surprising how few references in our politics there are to the underclass as compared by the middle class.

Everybody wants to talk about black and white, when the situation is really about rich people against poor people.

In verity we are the poor. This humanity we would claim for ourselves is the legacy, not only of the Enlightenment, but of the thousands and thousands of European peasants and poor townspeople who came here bringing their humanity and their sufferings with them. It is the absence of a stable upper class that is responsible for much of the vulgarity of the American scene. Should we blush before the visitor for this deficiency?

Without class differences, England would cease to be the living theatre it is.

For all the chatter that Britain has moved beyond class, recent studies have found that it determines the life chances of British people more today than at any point since the Second World War... A child born into a rich family in Britain will almost certainly live and die rich, while a child born into a poor family will almost certainly live and die poor.

The American dream is dead for the majority of America.

Traditionally the great men of our country have sprung from poor environments; that being so, it would appear we have long suffered from a severe lack of poverty.

Class - or the economic status of individuals - is evident in all societies, some very well stratified by a rigid caste system determined by birth.

They cannot divide us by saying that you're middle class or you're lower class.

I'm not from the working class. I'm from the criminal class.

Of course, in the United States, which at the time was a very young country, there were also class distinctions. They weren't as pronounced, but they quickly evolved as well.

The difference between rich and poor is becoming more extreme, and as income inequality widens the wealth gap in major nations, education, health and social mobility are all threatened.

I didn't go into 'Rabbit Hole' wanting to write about class. I think because of who I am it somehow found its way into it.

An imbalance between the rich and poor is the oldest and most fatal ailment of all republics.

The middle class is always a firm champion of equality when it concerns a class above it; but it is its inveterate foe when it concerns elevating a class below it.

Economic growth has the marvelous quality of stilling discontent while maintaining privilege

I'm tired of people on trust funds telling people on food stamps how to live.

I never knew the lower classes had such white skins.

There are no great lords who possess everything and a herd of people who have nothing