Boman Irani Quotes

I was crazy poor, but I was learning and putting myself out there and getting hired to do whatever gig I could and auditioning.

My mother was a public school teacher in Virginia, and we didn't have any money, we just survived on happiness, on being a happy family.

I expect if you are going to come out of the shadows, then you're going to want to have some type of hope in the future that you're going to improve your life and, yes, accomplish that American Dream.

I didn't have any knowledge of the music industry when I first got to L.A., and I really didn't know on a creative level what I wanted to sound like, so I had to do a lot of experimenting. It led to a spiral of depression and being broke.

However my parents - both of whom came from impoverished backgrounds and neither of whom had been to college, took the view that my overactive imagination was an amusing quirk that would never pay a mortgage or secure a pension.

We weren't dirt poor, but there was no spare money kicking around. While it was very much understood that the way to a better life was through education, books were a luxury we couldn't afford. But when I was six, we actually moved opposite the central library, and that became my home from home.

Other families who are poor do what they can to get out of it. My mother did not. She did not utilise her resources. She had a degree. There was something she could have done, but she actively, purposely refused that so we could have this absolutely authentic experience of the worst of capitalism: 'See? Look how bad capitalism is.'

I knew I wanted considerable education so that I wouldn't have to work as hard as my parents.

There are people with no high school education who are poor. but there are also university graduates on food bank lines. There are people who are poor because they have made bad choices, gotten addicted to drugs, burned bridges with friends and family — and then there are people who have never taken a drug in their lives, who have huge social networks, and who still can’t make ends meet.

… there are a great many people who not only can make no budget but can barely manage to exist with their families on what they earn from day to day

My family was mostly unemployed working class.

My mother was one of seven girls whose parents went to bed hungry so their children wouldn't. My father lost his mother when he was nine. He left school and went to work for the next 70 years. They emigrated to America with little more than the hope of a better life.

I knew what it was to be poor... my mother worried about putting food on the table. I knew what it was to feel excluded and shut out, but I also knew what it was to experience love and generosity.

The promise of American opportunity and prosperity means something different to each of us. What we each envision varies in terms of wants and needs, and aspirations can change over time. But we all want to see our children have more opportunities than we had.

I had done a lot of indie movies before I realized that acting could be a way for me to get my family out of poverty. It was at that point that I decided to take acting seriously.

I've been broke my whole life, you get what I'm saying? I'm scared of the bank.

I grew up so poor and now I have an opportunity to provide for my family in a way that I never imagined. I take that in consideration and try to exploit every single opportunity because when it's over it's over, there are no redos.

I didn't take the money route because I saw my parents struggle for survival.

Now, instead of loading up your jalopy and heading for California, you take a second, badly paid job; 'The Grapes of Wrath' has turned into 'Nickel and Dimed.'

I've always had big dreams and very little means.

My parents fled from a Cuban dictatorship in search of freedom. Growing up, I saw my parents struggle... I am here today because of them. My success is their success. Their sacrifice and perseverance made my education possible.

We weren't rich by any means, but we had each other, so we were rich in family. When you don't have a lot, it just fuels that creativity. So it manifested in us doing characters of people in the neighborhood or doing impersonations of Mom and Dad. The comedy bug, it takes over.

I remember back in the days my Mom didn't have enough for Thanksgiving.

So what if I'm sexy? You can still eat tomorrow if you see me and find me sexy. But if I steal your money, tomorrow you cannot eat, and tomorrow you cannot go to school, and tomorrow you'll be a hopeless man.

The American Dream - I believe in that cliche because I know what having nothing feels like.