Studs Terkel
Studs Terkel
Louis "Studs" Terkel was an American author, historian, actor, and broadcaster. He received the Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction in 1985 for "The Good War", and is best remembered for his oral histories of common Americans, and for hosting a long-running radio show in Chicago...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionJournalist
Date of Birth16 May 1912
CountryUnited States of America
cat curiosity epitaph
My epitaph? My epitaph will be, 'Curiosity did not kill this cat.
jobs two issues
The issue is jobs. You can't get away from it: jobs. Having a buck or two in your pocket and feeling like somebody.
talking office people
One day I visited a guy who had made a fortune as a broker. He was sitting in his office with his computer. I hire people from here and make deals from this room, he told me. Then he took me to the trading room. Nobody was talking to anybody else, the place was silent as a tomb, they were all sitting there watching their terminals - a great word, terminal. I tell you, it scares the crap out of me.
hate believe thinking
I'm not a Luddite completely; I believe in refrigerators to cool my martinis, and washing machines because I hate to see women smacking their laundry against a rock. When I hear about hardware, I think of pots and pans, and when I hear about software, I think of sheets and towels.
nice vocabulary use
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.'
reading book exercise
Reading a book should not be a passive exercise, but rather a raucous conversation.
perspective littles labels
I find labels "liberal" and "conservative" of little meaning. Our language has become perverted along with the thoughts of many of us.
jobs war book
All the other books ask, 'What's it like?' What was World War II like for the young kid at Normandy, or what is work like for a woman having a job for the first time in her life? What's it like to be black or white?
dare paraphrasing
I am paraphrasing Einstein. I love to do that: nobody dares contradict me.
hopeful optimist
I'm not an optimist. I'm hopeful.
people generations stories
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
thinking atoms splits
You know, 'power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely?' It's the same with powerlessness. Absolute powerlessness corrupts absolutely. Einstein said everything had changed since the atom was split, except the way we think. We have to think anew.
air talking people
What I bring to the interview is respect. The person recognizes that you respect them because you're listening. Because you're listening, they feel good about talking to you. When someone tells me a thing that happened, what do I feel inside? I want to get the story out. It's for the person who reads it to have the feeling . . . In most cases the person I encounter is not a celebrity; rather the ordinary person. "Ordinary" is a word I loathe. It has a patronizing air. I have come across ordinary people who have done extraordinary things. (p. 176)
cat curiosity epitaph
Curiosity never killed this cat’ — that’s what I’d like as my epitaph