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Studs Terkel
12 quotes
“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 (1912–2008) first seen 1956 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On seeing a 1956 performance by Billie Holiday, Talking to Myself Bk. 4 (1973) Ch. 4
“Doris Lessing: We simply have no idea of Chicago … We never think of you as being on a lake, or of the city being beautiful. We think about the gangsters. You do still have gangsters, don't you? Terkel: Yes, but these days they're mostly in business, or politics.”
Studs Terkel (1912–2008) first seen 1969 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Conversation with Lessing in 1969, quoted in "Doris Lessing comes to town" (15 October 1969) by Roger Ebert
“At a time when pimpery, lick-spittlery, and picking the public's pocket are the order of the day — indeed, officially proclaimed as virtue — the poet must play the madcap to keep his balance. And ours.”
Studs Terkel (1912–2008) first seen 1973 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On Nelson Algren, Talking to Myself Bk. 4 (1973)
“Chicago is not the most corrupt American city, it's the most theatrically corrupt.”
Studs Terkel (1912–2008) first seen 1978 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Dick Cavett Show (9 June 1978)
“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.”
Studs Terkel (1912–2008) first seen 2007 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Regarding his 95th birthday in "Give 'Em Hell, Mr. Terkel" (16 May 2007) by Amy Goodman
“I was walking downstairs carrying a drink in one hand and a book in the other. Don't try that after ninety.”
Studs Terkel (1912–2008) first seen 2008 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On breaking his hip, as quoted in "How Studs helps me lead my life" in Roger Ebert's Journal (24 May 2008)
“I'm celebrated for celebrating the uncelebrated.”
Studs Terkel (1912–2008) said by 2008 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“For the first book, I interviewed one mother of four little kids, skinny, pretty, bad teeth — meaning no dental care — and the kids are jumping around, 'cause they want to hear their mamma's voice played back... and so I play it back, and she listens to what she said on the tape and she says, 'Oh my God,' she says. ' I never knew I felt that way before' … That's pretty hot stuff, isn't it? That's hot stuff. That's the stuff.”
Studs Terkel (1912–2008) said by 2008 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A man comes from New York. He says, "These petitions, your name is on all of them: anti-poll tax, anti-lynching, friendship with the Soviet Union.... don't you know the communists were behind them?" And he said, "Look, you can get out of this pretty easy. All you got to do is say the communists duped you. You were dumb. You didn't mean it." I said, "But I did mean it!" To this day people say, "Oh, Studs, you were so heroic." Heroic? I was scared shitless! But my ego was at stake. My vanity. "Whaddya mean, I'm dumb?”
Studs Terkel (1912–2008) first seen 1953 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On his blacklisting in 1953
“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.”
Studs Terkel (1912–2008) said by 2008 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I like quoting Einstein. Know why? Because nobody dares contradict you.”
Studs Terkel (1912–2008) said by 2008 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The key issue is jobs. You can't get away from it: jobs. Having a buck or two in your pocket and feeling like somebody. Mother Jones Magazine - Sep 1995”
Studs Terkel (1912–2008) said by 2008 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source