Studs Terkel – Quotes Crazy

Something was still there, that something that distinguishes an artist from a performer: the revealing of self. Here I be. Not for long, but here I be. In sensing her mortality, we sensed our own. – Studs Terkel

Having been blacklisted from working in television during the McCarthy era, I know the harm of government using private corporations to intrude into the lives of innocent Americans. When government uses the telephone companies to create massive databases of all our phone calls it has gone too far. – Studs Terkel

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. – Studs Terkel

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. – Studs Terkel

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. – Studs Terkel

I hope for peace and sanity – its the same thing. – Studs Terkel

I think its realistic to have hope. One can be a perverse idealist and say the easiest thing: I despair. The worlds no good. Thats a perverse idealist. Its practical to hope, because the hope is for us to survive as a human species. Thats very realistic. – Studs Terkel

We use the word hope perhaps more often than any other word in the vocabulary: I hope its a nice day. Hopefully, youre doing well. So how are things going along? Pretty good. Going to be good tomorrow? Hope so. – Studs Terkel

People are ready to say, Yes, we are ready for single-payer health insurance. We are the only industrialized country in the world that does not have national health insurance. We are the richest in wealth and the poorest in health of all the industrial nations. – Studs Terkel

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. – Studs Terkel

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. – Studs Terkel

Religion obviously played a role in this book and the previous book, too. – Studs Terkel

If solace is any sort of succor to someone, that is sufficient. I believe in the faith of people, whatever faith they may have. – Studs Terkel

I want, of course, peace, grace, and beauty. How do you do that? You work for it. – Studs Terkel