As a kid, I really wanted to have my own show. But when…

My one ambition was to go to Broadway, and I never gave up on that dream.

— David Hasselhoff

When you grow up in poverty and learn how to survive it, it's something that stays with you forever.

— Arnel Pineda

Twenty per cent of American children grow up in poverty, and that means they get inadequate nutrition, inadequate health care, and because we have…

— Joseph Stiglitz

Did you know that nearly one in three children live apart from their biological dads? Those kids are two to three times more likely…

— Tony Dungy

When you grow up in poverty, suffer from abuse, live in a violent neighborhood, come from a broken home, lack positive role models, are…

— Christine Tsai

Sometimes, when you grow up in one of these poverty-stricken neighborhoods where the educational system isn't the best, you don't realize that you have…

— Keke Palmer

Growth is the surviving influence in all our lives. The tree will send up its trunk in thick profusion from land burned black by…

— Chester Himes

Yeah, you got the family dog and the white picket fence, and you just think that's all there is. Some of us had to…

— Michael Vick

There's a real sense of desperation when you grow up in poverty.

— Ray LaMontagne

Yes, my uncle wanted me to be a cinematographer and he was disappointed when I gave up that dream to become an actress.

— Suhasini Maniratnam

“A star is a rock that never gave up on its dream to rise.”

— Matshona Dhliwayo

Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave, I am the dream and the hope of the slave. I rise. I rise. I rise.

— Maya Angelou

“A butterfly is a caterpillar who never gave up on his dream to fly.”

— Matshona Dhliwayo

“Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave, I am the dream and the hope of the slave.”

— Maya Angelou

I basically gave up my dream of becoming a mom.

— Mayte Garcia