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I was born in a very poor family. I used to sell tea in a railway coach as a child. My mother used to wash utensils and do lowly household work in the houses of others to earn a livelihood. I have seen poverty very closely. I have lived in poverty. As a child, my entire childhood was steeped in poverty.

You almost have to create situations in order to write about them, so I live in a constant state of self-imposed poverty. I don't want to live any other way.

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

You can't not be changed by the experience of seeing extreme poverty. You start to want to think about ways in which you can make the world better.

My poverty is not complete: it lacks me.

We are one of the richest countries in the world, and there is absolutely no reason why anyone should have to live in poverty.

The burden of poverty isn't just that you don't always have the things you need, it's the feeling of being embarrassed every day of your life, and you'd do anything to lift that burden.

I am open-eyed about what poverty does to people.

To get away from poverty, you need several things at the same time: school, health, and infrastructure - those are the public investments. And on the other side, you need market opportunities, information, employment, and human rights.

Poverty is an artificial, external imposition on a human being; it is not innate in a human being. And since it is external, it can be removed. It is just a question of doing it.