Quotes by Studs Terkel

How goddamn foolish it is, the war. Theys no war in the worth thats worth fightin for. I dont care where it is. They cant tell me any different. Money, money is the thing that causes it all. I wouldnt be a bit surprised that the people that start wars and promote em are the men that make the money, make the ammunition, make the clothing and so forth. Just think of the poor kids that are starvin to death in Asia and so forth that could be fed with how much you make one big shell of. ~Alvin Tommy Bridges

I think most of us are looking for a calling, not a job. Most of us, like the assembly-line worker, have jobs that are too small for our spirit. Jobs are not big enough for people.

Everybodys entitled to that forty acres and a mule. Youre going to do the work, but you have to have something to work with. If you dont have a job, where do you go from there? You hear people say Pull yourself up by your bootstraps, and you dont even have shoes. Youre barefooted. What are you going to pull yourself up by? Our country owes every citizen of the United States of America a means of livelihood. Not a handout, but a way to make it.

Chicago is not the most corrupt of cities. The state of New Jersey has a couple. Need we mention Nevada? Chicago, though, is the Big Daddy. Not more corrupt, just more theatrical, more colorful in its shadiness.

To survive the day is triumph enough for the walking wounded among the great many of us.

With optimism, you look upon the sunny side of things. People say, Studs, youre an optimist. I never said I was an optimist. I have hope because whats the alternative to hope? Despair? If you have despair, you might as well put your head in the oven.

Nonetheless, do I have respect for people who believe in the hereafter? Of course I do. I might add, perhaps even a touch of envy too, because of the solace.

Ive always felt, in all my books, that theres a deep decency in the American people and a native intelligence - providing they have the facts, providing they have the information.

Im not up on the Internet, but I hear that is a democratic possibility. People can connect with each other. I think people are ready for something, but there is no leadership to offer it to them. People are ready to say, Yes, we are part of a world.

I want a language that speaks the truth.

Thats why I wrote this book: to show how these people can imbue us with hope. I read somewhere that when a person takes part in community action, his health improves. Something happens to him or to her biologically. Its like a tonic.