Quotes from Studs Terkel

I hope for peace and sanity - it's the same thing.

We use the word 'hope' perhaps more often than any other word in the vocabulary: 'I hope it's a nice day.' 'Hopefully, you're doing well.' 'So how are things going along? Pretty good. Going to be good tomorrow? Hope so.'

But once you become active in something, something happens to you. You get excited and suddenly you realize you count.

When you become part of something, in some way you count. It could be a march; it could be a rally, even a brief one. You're part of something, and you suddenly realize you count. To count is very important.

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

Someone who does an act. In a democratic society, you're supposed to be an activist; that is, you participate. It could be a letter written to an editor.

I guess I was seeking some balance in the wildlife of the city as Rachel Carson sought it in nature. In unbalanced times, balance is as difficult to come by as Parsifal's Grail.

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

So how are things going along? Pretty good. Going to be good tomorrow? Hope so.

A guy I interviewed for Hard Times says, "What do I remember about the Great Depression? That I was hungry, that's all." Elemental things.

I read somewhere that when a person takes part in community action, his health improves. Something happens to him or to her biologically. It's like a tonic.

People are hungry for stories. It's part of our very being. Storytelling is a form of history, of immortality too. It goes from one generation to another. -Studs Terkel

In order for us, black and white, to disenthrall ourselves from the harshest slavemaster, racism, we must disinter our buried history.... We are all the Pilgrim, setting out on this journey.

Hope never trickles down. It always springs up.

I hope that memory is valued - that we do not lose memory.

Chicago is not the most corrupt American city. It's the most theatrically corrupt.

You happen to be talking to an agnostic. You know what an agnostic is? A cowardly atheist.

If there is knowledge, it lies in the fusion of the book and the street.

We are the most powerful nation in the world, but we're not the only nation in the world. We are not the only people in the world. We are an important people, the wealthiest, the most powerful and, to a great extent, generous. But we are part of the world.

I want to praise activists through the years. I praise those of the past as well, to have them honored.

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

All you need in life is truth and beauty and you can find both at the Public Library.

Taking life seriously requires taking death seriously.

I was born in the year the Titanic sank. The Titanic went down, and I came up. That tells you a little about the fairness of life.