I think being poor has been good for me. I saw how my mom and dad struggled, and how they could stretch a dollar farther than you could begin to imagine.
Mom always said people worried too much about their children. Suffering when you are young is good for you, she said. It immunized your body and your soul.
I used to help out my father, a bricklayer, in the summer. I'd catch the bricks (that were dropped). And it made me strong, catching those bricks. I wouldn't change anything about it. That's why I'm where I am today. Really.
Poverty, labor, and calamity are not without their luxuries, which the rich, the indolent, and the fortunate in vain seek for.
Poverty dictated my childhood. But there were benefits as well: I became independent, more mature than my peers, and I realized that money is not the most important thing in life.
Sweet are the uses of adversity
I think we live in a culture that relentlessly pursues comfort. Ease is related to disease. We shouldn't always be fleeing hardship. Hardship also brings people together. We should welcome it.
Oh yes, my generation liked to be in some pain when they read. The harder it was, the more good we believed it was doing us.
I think when you grow up - cement floors, tin roofs, having to amuse yourselves... you know, the importance of work - I think these are benefits that I've had.
