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
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
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
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