I said, "Suppose communists come out against cancer, do we have to automatically come out for cancer?'" I can't take back that I'm against the poll tax, that I'm against lynching, that I'm for peace.

How come you don't work fourteen hours a day? Your great-great-grandparents did. How come you only work the eight-hour day? Four guys got hanged fighting for the eight-hour day for you.

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

Most of us have jobs that are too small for our spirits.

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.

I want people to talk to one another no matter what their difference of opinion might be.

We are living in the United States of Alzheimer's. A whole country has lost its memory. When it can't remember yesterday, a country forgets what it once wanted to be.

Hope never trickles down. It always springs up.

Ordinary people are capable of doing extraordinary things, and that's what it's all about. They must count.

I've always felt, in all my books, that there's a deep decency in the American people and a native intelligence - providing they have the facts, providing they have the information.

More and more we are into communications; and less and less into communication.

Don’t be different just to be different. Be different to be better.

The first step my son which one makes in the world is the one on which depends the rest of our days.

For he who is honest is noble, Whatever his fortunes or birth.

They all hope I will go broke and I wouldn't like to cause them displeasure.

I've always wanted a C trumpet on top, to have that same kind of facility without shouting.

The guy who finally pulled the trigger on Osama bin Laden is not patting himself on the back. He's giving as much credit to his teammates who got him to that position.

Christ lived the life we could not live and took the punishment we could not take to offer the hope we cannot resist.

Yes, you can have it all, but not all at the same time. Set your own priorities, trust your gut and follow your heart.

I just personally really enjoy having a clean body. I shower twice a day. I just like feeling clean and feeling smooth.

Culture as we're practicing it is causing a lot of pain.