Arnel Pineda Quotes

Poverty is uncomfortable; but nine times out of ten the best thing that can happen to a young man is to be tossed overboard and compelled to sink or swim.

You grow up skinny in Canada; in working-class Montreal, you're definitely the underdog.

Even as a child, I found a way to survive.

My entire childhood was steeped in poverty. For me, poverty, in a way, was the first inspiration of my life, a commitment to do something for the poor.

A lot of people work extremely hard and through no fault of their own - bad luck, the wrong environment, unfortunate circumstances - struggle to survive.

Growing up, I had a face that people wanted to tell things to, and I grew up with adults who had so much to say. They had lived through decades of unbelievable poverty, starvation, political upheaval, chaos.

You had to be tough to survive in my neighborhood.

I've experienced poverty and plenty, and there's a lesson to be learned when you're brought up in poverty.

In my early days in school, I had no shoes, no school bags. There were days I had only one meal... I walked miles and crossed rivers to school every day. Didn't have power, didn't have generators, studied with lanterns, but I never despaired.

I think most art comes out of poverty and hard times.

All I'm trying to do is survive and make good out of the dirty, nasty, unbelievable lifestyle that they gave me.

When I was a kid, I had to fight for everything.

Poverty is the schoolmaster of character.

Poverty makes you wise but it's a curse.

Growing up in a trailer, you think everything you get is good. I always thought it was a gift from God, because some people are out here struggling and on the street. We had warmth. We had clothes. We had a roof over our head.

I didn't want to be looked at as a below-the-poverty-line kid. But now I think, that trailer is where I got the ambition. The anger. If we had a better life, I wouldn't be here. That trailer made me.

I fought for my survival since infancy.

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

When you grow up hard, when you grow up surviving, unfortunately, it helps.

If I can make it through homelessness, I can make it through anything.

My girls had to grow up quick because of everything we've been through.

No matter where you go, poor people have the capacity to endure. Some people even compliment us on it, as if endurance is all we can achieve.

I have a different kind of experience than other girls had. I've had to face a lot of different styles and adjust to them. I had to face a lot of bad situations and come back. I've had to fight with my eyes swollen shut and my nose broken and bloody.

In Kurdistan, there's a lot of hardship - a lot of wars, a lot of bitter and difficult lifestyles. And witnessing all those made me a director.

When I first came out, I was a film student, and my mom sewed clothes. I was already doing a million things then, whatever it took to survive. If I had to braid someone's hair to get one pound for my lunch money, that's what I did.