Jerome Boateng Quotes

I lived in Complexo do Alemao until I was 12, dealt with domestic violence in my childhood and faced difficulties in life.

Appalling things can happen to children. And even a happy childhood is filled with sadnesses.

I was definitely an at-risk kid growing up.

My entire youth was spent with an incredibly ill parent... I don't think you can grow up that way and not be marked by that experience.

When I was young I lost everything.

Those of us who were 12 or 13 when the war started were absolutely thrown into the mainstream. We had to grow up instantly and take care of ourselves.

I've had to grow up pretty fast, which is not a good thing.

I had to grow up very quickly.

I am extremely interested in how people negotiate catastrophe, not because I'm morbidly interested in it but because I'm interested in the secret of resilience; that's what I'm always exploring in the stories and the novels.

For the first five years of my life, things felt pretty good. A lot went wrong after that, family-wise.

It's true that I suffered a lot, especially when I was younger.

I've had to find my sanity.

I had a very difficult upbringing.

A lot of people who start work at a very young age never grow up because they never got that opportunity to be a child, so they hold on to that and still do a lot of childish, silly things.

I never really wanted to grow up. I grew up really young. I moved out when I was 13 - that's when I started acting.

My dad said, 'The thing that I was told that was really helpful was that I mustn't be afraid of the things I was afraid of when I was five years old'. The shock of his childhood had put him in this defensive crouch against the world, and he needed to know that he had a nice wife and kids and it wasn't the same any more.

I had to deal with death at a really young age.

Looking back, I realise I had to grow up and be responsible at a very tender age.

When there's an adult person who's scaring you, you grow up pretty quickly.

There is nothing on earth that could ever make me want to relive certain years of my life when I was young.

I probably wouldn't be a songwriter if I didn't grow up the way I did. It was difficult and it was at times very scary to grow up in a household so unsettled and at times very violent. But, it also, I guess it earned me a sort of wisdom at a young age that's served me well.

I think everybody has their pain. For me, the time that I really had to grow up was when I was 15 and I had my best friend die of leukemia. Watching somebody so strong go through that is definitely something that will give you a little bit of depth. There have been a lot of things that have happened in my life that has forced me to grow up.

I didn't have a good childhood growing up.

I would not give my first 15 years to my worst enemy.

If you have injuries, it's tough.