Studs Terkel Quotes

It is useless to talk virtue to a starving girl.

And who is any of us, that without starvation he can go through the kingdoms of starvation?

I know exactly what it's like to not have a penny. I know exactly what it's like trying to get a job. I know exactly what it's like having bloody one tin of Ambrosia left in the cupboard. But I know I can survive.

Hunger is the teacher of many.

No agitation for political reforms could be carried on by a plague-stricken and starving people. Food was what they needed and most urgently demanded. The political argument died away, drowned in cries and petitions for relief, lost in weepings and wailings for the victims who were perishing in hundreds by the roadsides, in the fields, and in their bare and empty houses.

Hunger has always been more or less at my elbow when I played, but now I began to wake up at night to find hunger standing at my bedside, staring at my gauntly.

Things were so bad we ate rabbits that neighbours had run over and gave to us because they knew we were broke.

The war years were the most difficult time of my life. There was real famine in Moscow. The water froze inside the houses. There was no heat.

I worry about Zimbabweans. They bend, they bend, they bend, they bend - where do the people break? How long can they go on scrounging for food in garbage dumps and using the moisture from sewage drains to plant vegetables?

We're living in hard times.

I will never forget the hunger I used to feel.

We came from nothing really. One house. Ten people. Even days the lights was off. The worst days was not eating. Surviving off rice and toast.

Hunger can bring out the worst in us.

Yeah, I'll basically do anything to make money for food.

Times were so hard it was difficult to feed and lodge humans, much less animals.

Give me hunger, pain and want, Shut me out with shame and failure From your doors of gold and fame, Give me your shabbiest, weariest hunger! But leave me a little love.

I know what it's like to be hungry. I know what it's like to be homeless. I know what it's like to have to choose between breaking the law and feeding yourself. I know what it's like to take meals at shelters and at Salvation Army facilities. I know what it's like to beg for money on the streets.

Do I gotta go sell me a whole lotta crack for decent shelter and clothes on my back?

The heat of the bread burned into my skin, but I clutched it tighter, clinging to life.

Hunger allows no choice.

A semi-starved nation can have neither religion nor art nor organization.

My father had a couple of kids at the beginning of the Depression. There was not much employment. Not much welfare. People barely got by. People were tougher then.

Tragedies come in the hungry hours.

You don't worry about happiness and fulfilment when you're starving.

I used to walk to the Washington Monument from North L Street Northwest. And I was so hungry at times, I would stop and look into the trash cans, and if there was a half a sandwich, I would take that sandwich and eat it. It was just a matter of survival. I didn't think much of it, but it was just the way things were.