Betty Smith Quotes

New York is a place that can grind you down and spit you out. A true New Yorker doesn't get ground down - he gets polished.

No matter where its seed fell, it made a tree which struggled to reach the sky. It grew in boarded-up lots and out of neglected rubbish heaps, and it was the only tree that grew out of cement. It grew lushly, but only in the tenements districts.... That was the kind of tree it was. It liked poor people.

As the daughter of immigrants, growing up in New York City, you are either at the table or on the menu.

After school, I'd wait for someone to pick me up and no one would, so I'd be like, 'I guess I'll walk home.' I had to be a hustler, because nobody did anything for me.

Mama tried to save us from the streets, but the streets were too strong.

It's the way of life in Saginaw. If you're not tough, you don't survive.

When I was little, I remember rehearsing starving so that when I got to New York I would know how to do it.

When you grow up on the other side of the tracks, you're used to taking a few bumps.

If we cannot sing of faith and triumph, we will sing our despair. We will be that kind of bird. There are day owls, and there arenight owls, and each is beautiful and even musical while about its business.

It is astonishing how the human animal survives its misfortunes.

Sometimes I think life is just a rodeo, the trick is to ride and make it to the bell.

The complacent, the self-indulgent, the soft societies are about to be swept away with the debris of history. Only the strong, only the industrious, only the determined, only the courageous, only the visionary who determine the real nature of our struggle can possibly survive.

Growing up in a place that has winter, you learn to avoid self-pity. Winter is not a personal experience, everybody else is just as cold as you, so you shouldn't complain about it too much. You learn this as a kid, coming home crying from the cold, and Mother looks down and says, 'It's only a little frostbite. You're okay.' And thus you learn to be okay. What's done is done. Get over it. Drink your coffee. It's not the best you'll ever get but it's good enough.

Life there was hard and it made people hard.

There's a tree that grows in Brooklyn. Some people call it the Tree of Heaven. No matter where its seed falls, it makes a tree which struggles to reach the sky.

Growing up, my family was an enemy of the state. I have experienced more disappointment than joy, much more sad stories or desperate conditions.

It's amazing and sad what we have to do to survive sometimes.

Man desired concord; but nature knows better what is good for his species; she desires discord. Man wants to live easy and content; but nature compels him to leave ease... and throw himself into roils and labors.

We must struggle for our dreams, but when certain paths prove impossible, it would be best to save our energies in order to travel other roads.

...It seems hard that a man in his need could be so flouted by a road.

Ladies and gentlemen, after what I've been through, I am happy just to be wearing clothes that open in the front.

I'm a survivor in a business that constantly rejects you.

America is a rough room and you don't know what might come your way, so you have to be prepared for almost anything.

In desperate position, you must fight.

You have to fight just to survive.