Quotes About Struggle

There were times I'd be nervous walking home from elementary school, thinking, 'If that red tag from the power company saying our lights are turned off is on the door handle, I don't know what I'll do.'

I was born illegitimately and almost immediately, as I understand it, placed in an orphanage. So my very earliest memories were in an orphanage. It was the tag end of the Great Depression when I was born. People were desperately poor.

I think any actor can relate to the feeling of 'Just tag me in, coach, give me a chance.' Athletes go through the same thing. To be quite honest, most people in any job or career probably go though that, when you want a chance to prove what you can do, or somebody is taking away a chance at something you can do.

I would hang out with my friends, and they would make me sing in exchange for food. I'd tag along just so I could eat. Then we would go to the park, and I'd sleep there with other homeless kids.

A lot of people have that notion that it must have been easier for me because I had the Malik tag. But I don't feel it's right. With due respect to someone like Ankit Tiwari who leaves everything at home to come and make it big here without any backing, I agree I have an advantage.

Award shows come with a price tag. You have to lobby and I don't have the acumen for such stuff. Maybe that's the reason I hardly have any award.

Once you become tagged as anything, it becomes difficult to shake it, because the less imaginative people in the business want you to do what worked for the last guy. That's always been something I've had to deal with.

If you play this game long enough, you're going to get your tail kicked at least once.

You can tell when someone on TV who's supposed to be struggling to pay back loans is clearly wearing a Gucci suit or tailored to perfection.

My parents worked their tails off, but we weren't the poorest people in town. Some people I went to school with, you could tell they were dirt poor.

I am an Asian designer. I was born in Taiwan. That is who I am. But I am a designer, like any designer of any race. Growing up in the '80s in Taiwan, the arts were not considered a career.

I grew up in Taiwan, which was a military dictatorship.

Life is about how much you can take and keep fighting, how much you can suffer and keep moving forward.

I don't think I made it clear where I was mentally when I appeared on 'X Factor.' There was so much pressure and a lot of judging. But I wanted to take a chance on the show because I wanted to make something of myself. 'X Factor' seemed like the only way out.

You got to take a deep breath and give up. The system is rigged against you.

It's easy to be led astray when you're so broken. People take advantage of you.

His struggle for a bare living left him no time to take advantage of the public evening school. In time he learned to read, to follow a conversation or lecture; but he never learned to write correctly; and his pronunciation remains extremely foreign to this day.

Bill Bradley is a serious politician and if Al Gore stumbles seriously, then Bradley is there to take advantage of that.

I always wanted to be normal. I tried really hard, but it's like I try so hard and then people still say I'm offbeat. I've learnt to accept that and take advantage of it as an actor.

Forward, always moving forward, from the time I can remember - a kid. I was short, and the big guys would take advantage; I had to turn myself into a body puncher. By that time I was in reform school, they'd have a boxing match every week; they'd bring guys in from outside to fight me.

You've got to gamble on yourself. If you don't, no one else is going to. It's very hard when you're poor to turn down money. When you've got money, it's easy. When you're poor, you need money today. People take advantage of poor people.

When you have chances against the top guys, and you couldn't make it, then they take advantage of the game.

When people come back and they try and prey and take advantage of somebody that's coming back and redeeming and regaining, it kind of messes with my head.

My whole life has been nothing but trying to find a way to take care of my mom and take care of my family as quickly as possible.