Chris Hillman Quotes

I am, as they say, the classic starving artist.

When you're a starving artist, you make do. It didn't matter that I didn't know where my rent was coming from.

I'm basically a starving artist.

I can live in L.A. as a struggling artist. I cannot live in New York as a struggling artist.

In my early days, I was about 145 pounds. I was really a starving artist; the poster child for starving artists.

Those years between drama school and getting onto the stand-up circuit were pretty lean.

Before I had a record deal, I was living in New York and playing anywhere I could, from somebody's house to an open mic to coffeeshops.

Somehow, the French got this idea of the starving artist. Very romantic, except it's not so romantic for the starving artist.

I was not a girl who grew up buying $100 candles. I was the girl who ran out of gas on her way to an audition.

I was working maybe four different jobs just to make ends meet. I was really broke. I could barely pay rent. I didn't have a car. I was riding my bike from one job to another and then to audition in between.

When I first came to Seoul to start model work, I felt bad asking for financial support from my parents, so I lived in the sauna for about six months.

People started noticing my singing on YouTube, and then I came to L.A., and I lived on a studio couch. I wrote songs every single day with whoever I could write songs with.

As children we had traveled only in cars and led a lavish lifestyle. After father and we parted ways, we had little money to afford even petrol; I used to travel to the Tollygunge studios in the south of the city from our Dumdum home in the north by bus. I would do any role that came my way: hero's friend, or brother, or son, just about anything.

I was poor. I struggled big time, living hand to mouth so I could be the kind of artist I want to be.

I've always been the person to look at any turmoil as temporary. I recall times where my mom was working five and six jobs, and there's still no food in the house.

When I first came to Hollywood, I couldn't afford a telephone.

When we first were working, we had no money. We were all sharing this ghastly flat and we had nothing.

Living in Flint, poverty is an obstacle that you have to fight through. I always had to fend for my brother and sister - I was always the one to sacrifice my meals so that they could eat.

We were so poor. Every item of clothing came from a thrift store.

I got into bluegrass music when I was 14, as a way to get into a band. My brother and I had a band and our own radio show, and that's what was popular.

Texas is really special in that we have our own music scene, our own music chart. It's almost a genre on its own. It feels like you can make a great living just touring the state because it's so big, but eventually, I wanted a new challenge.

A lot of rappers think they better than me because they saw me broke, going in and out of studios, and couldn't pay for studio time.

I came from a background where we didn't have bread. I know what it's like to live with money and no money.

I kept auditioning, with no savings and no money, credit card debt gaining interest. I went on unemployment. I bought ramen noodles at dollar stores. I never had to - God forbid - live on the streets.

My relationship with my first child was nonexistent. I was broke and I was a new rapper whose career was spiraling downward.