Kenya Barris Quotes

My dad was a janitor for U.S. Radium Corporation, and he stayed there for 37 years. So he didn't read.

I went from the projects to a real house. It was a big difference.

Even when I was living below the poverty line as a novelist, I was still living better than 99.5% of the human population of the world. But in my little, soft realm of trying to amuse a few dozen middle-class people with my books and articles, I did struggle to survive in my own way.

Our society does not give nearly enough credit to business leaders who create jobs, behave ethically and provide products and services that enhance our lives.

Economic growth is necessary to keep the promise - enormously important to individual Americans - that each generation will have the opportunity to become more prosperous than the preceding one, the popular term for which is 'the American dream.'

I think there was a time when I considered myself a work addict, but that's no longer accurate. My life has changed so dramatically over the last number of years, especially having a family now. My priorities have shifted.

I've enjoyed my retirement.

I think every parent, every generation has wanted their children to do better and have a higher standard of living. But I think there's too much guilt.

We complain of the increased tempo of our lives, but our frenetic lives are just reflection of the economic system that we have created.

I don't know how you can move out of one's socioeconomic category if you don't have education.

I was convinced that eventually I would die of heart disease, that we'd run out of time and out of treatment, the technology wouldn't keep ahead of my disease. And now all of the sudden, when you get the new heart, your life opens up before you again.

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

The day I initiated divorce proceedings against Michael Farmer, I was ready to retire to a desert cave and rethink my life.

I was a healthy young man, and I thought I was invincible before I was diagnosed with kidney disease.

After wrestling with myself for six months, I began medical treatment. During that time I started a band with some friends of mine called Jack's Car, but that didn't last.

I was married for four years, then success happened.

My dementia hasn't just affected me - it's affected my friends and family, too.

If I stopped touring tomorrow, it wouldn't change my life.

Above and beyond the question of how to grow the economy there is a legitimate concern about how to grow the quality of our lives.

General well-being is incompatible with lowness of wages.

We have no intention of downsizing the American Dream.

… a steady job with decent pay and health benefits, rising living standards, a home of your own, secure retirement, and the hope that your children would enjoy a better future.

There is the freedom from want, despair and psychological insecurity that would come from having income sufficient to provide the necessities of life. But there is also the freedom to choose not to work for a time in order to take care of family members, pursue a passion, acquire education or contribute to a worthwhile community project. There is the freedom to start a new business with an uncertain future, the freedom to say yes to a job that pays little but yields joy and satisfaction — and the freedom to say no to a job that pays too little or is demeaning and unpleasant. Why, they ask, should such freedoms be reserved only for the wealthy?

You’re twice as likely to realize the American Dream if you’re growing up in Canada rather than the U.S.

My dad had a series of heart attacks when I was a little girl, and our world was shaped by these huge, traumatic events.