American
Journalist,
Author and
Historian
(May 16,
1912 - )
"The history of those who shed those other tears, the history of those anonymous millions, is what Terkel wants readers and listeners to come away with. What's it like to be that goofy little soldier, scared stiff, with his bayonet aimed at Christ? What's it like to have been a woman in a defense-plant job during World War II? What's it like to be a kid at the front lines? It's all funny and tragic at the same time."
"It is about a search, too, for daily meaning as well as daily bread, for recognition as well as cash, for astonishment rather than torpor; in short, for a sort of life rather than a Monday through Friday sort of dying."
"Most of us have jobs that are too small for our spirits."
"On the evening bus, the tired, pinched faces of young file clerks and elderly secretaries tell us more than we care to know."
"Once I was at the Atlanta airport. I was taking the train between terminals. Its a smooth, quiet train, and it was jammed when I walked in. But it was absolutely quiet except for a mechanical voice calling out the stops. The doors were about to close, a couple rushes in and the mechanical voice says, Because of late entry, the train will be delayed for 30 seconds. People were staring at the couple, they were angry, and I yelled out, George Orwell, your time has come and gone, things are so efficient we're losing our humanity and our sense of humor. Now there are three miscreants: The crowd is staring at me and at the young couple. Sitting nearby was a baby on a mothers lap. I asked the baby, What do you think about this? She laughs, and I say, A human voice at last! There's still hope!"
"Perhaps it is this specter that most haunts working men and women: the planned obsolescence of people that is of a piece with the planned obsolescence of the things they make. Or sell."
"Think of what's stored in an 80- or a 90-year-old mind. Just marvel at it. You've got to get out this information, this knowledge, because you've got something to pass on. There'll be nobody like you ever again. Make the most of every molecule you've got as long as you've got a second to go."
