Nana Patekar Quotes

Millions of middle-class Americans, in free fall during the economic collapse that began around 2008, have had a taste of what it means to be poor.

My grandfather was a wealthy and respected merchant in Montclair, New Jersey, where I was born. But his estate was wiped out in the Great Depression, and as a result, I had what I consider the ideal upbringing: We were a proud family, good citizens, and we didn't have a sou.

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

I would say that many of the characters in my stories do not live in true poverty - they are not out on the street; they are not wondering if there will be anything to eat in the next week. They are people who are at the lower echelons of the economic strata.

We sometime didn't get enough to buy oats for our horses. Most banks had very little money in them.

He is now rising from affluence to poverty.

If you were out of a job and your kid needed diapers and your husband just left you, you would be so confused.

While some people are certainly seeing economic benefits, many others are unemployed, underemployed, without health insurance and struggling to make ends meet.

When I graduated from high school, it was during the Depression and we had no money.

There's not much money in Tallahassee. Not many people can leave Tallahassee because they don't have the means.

Both chronic, long-term poverty and downward mobility from the middle class are in the same category of things that America likes not to think about.

Money was tight and Mum used to do two jobs to support us.

I come from a poor family.

When I was a teenager, my father went bust. He could have declared himself bankrupt, but he was an honourable man and he insisted on paying back all his debts. That almost ruined the family. I was aware that my mother and father couldn't control things anymore. I guess I was afraid that we would end up on the street.

It's such a Bore Being always Poor.

My family in general - they're troubled or poorer people.

I grew up poor.

So I went to Miami in '74 with my family and while I was there it became obvious that we needed money and we needed to do something, because my family, we left without anything really, and we didn't have any money to begin with.

Bums are the well-to-do of this day. They didn't have as far to fall.

There is a degree of wretchedness and want among the lower class of people which is not anywhere so common as among the Spanish and Portuguese settlements.

Let's start off with my father being a mailman. So I understand the concerns of all the folks across this country, some of whom having trouble, you know, making ends meet.

My mother taught us to sell food in the market so we could pay for school. I would get up at 4:30 A.M. and start selling bread and cheese before going to class. School cost $65. The average salary was $125 a year, and with 10 kids, how are you going to pay for that?

I had to escape the destruction of my father's bankruptcy and all that difficulty.

Men and women of high professional standing have been reduced to the status of vagrants.

My mom was born poor, raised poor, and was going to die poor.