Tough Upbringing Quotes

I come from where Mike Tyson came from. I come from right across the street from Jay-Z. I didn't have a pond in my backyard. I saw violence.

I just wasn't raised a granola eating, peace love hippie type person. I'm from Michigan and was raised in and around Detroit where it is kind of you get respect and you give respect. That is how I feel.

I was a kid growing up in Houston, didn't have a lot - three younger brothers, a single mom. It was tough.

What's helped me is my childhood, my tough upbringing. I learnt a lot from that; it helps with any problems I might encounter.

I'm just one woman away, my mother, from being the same as Mike Tyson. I would've ended up like him if my mama had not been so tough and strong. A lot of people, including Mike, don't know I came from the ghetto. They think I'm too nice and proper. But that's the way my mama raised me - to look people in the eye and respect them.

When I hung out with my Uncle Chris, things got real. He was fun, talkative, and loud. He was the life of the party and a magnet for mischief. Since he saw the world through a gangsta's lens, he wanted me to become tough and aggressive.

When you look at guys who get recruited, most of the best athletes, they come from poor families. I don't forget. I was a junior looking through my mother's stuff and looked at her bank statement, and we had $30 in the bank.

My education was paid for by the RAF Benevolent Fund, so a charity school, run like an orphanage, with uniforms and beatings. It was tough, but it got me to Cambridge - like being a chrysalis suddenly becoming a butterfly.

They had been brought up in the School of Hard Knocks.

I came from a tough neighborhood. I used to be a 'dirty Greek.'

I'm from a rough place: the Bronx.

I saw my parents come over. They were immigrants, they had no money. My dad wore the same pair of shoes, I had some ugly clothes growing up, and I never had any privileges. In some ways, I think the person that I am now, I think it's good that I had that kind of tough upbringing.

I was brought up in the East End, and if a man was inappropriate in a bar, you'd throw your drink over him.

I understand that Detroit was a pretty rough place to grow up in the '70s and '80s.

I don't like to be picked on. Growing up where I did you learn to fight.

To me, I don't even think I had a childhood. From when I was a baby to 12 years old, yes. But as soon as I left the Bahamas, that stuff was over. It was just straight business. I'm on a mission. That's how it's always been.

Since I didn't grow up going to school dances, etc., I didn't have the normal . . . I grew up in a very different way so a lot of the childish concerns or teenage concerns weren't my concerns. My concerns were survival.

Now up and atom it's on, I was raised to be strong, and mama told me be a thug since the day I was born. The fame was a plot to try a change me, and what's strange is nobody knew my name.

Don't respect a lot of rappers, feel I had a harder life

My dad was raised hard. His own dad's mentality was, 'If you're not dead, you can work. If you're not dead, you're all right.'

I know how to read people. When you grow up in a rough environment, you have to have a sixth sense.

I had a pretty modest upbringing; it was no pleasure cruise. I don't think I would be as happy today if I hadn't been through that. It was tough; I made some bad choices myself.

I suppose I am a bit of rough. I'm originally from Coolock: I'm rough around the edges.

I don't come from a position that I am better than everybody; I come from a position that I had a tough upbringing. And I don't always highlight it, because I just never wanted to be that person with another rags to riches story.

When you're growing up in a family without a lot of money and four boys, it can't always be, 'Let's go see a specialist, see if you're okay.' If you got hurt, you just walked it off.