Their impoverished condition somehow made them very real people. It’s hard to be phony when you haven’t got anything. - Studs Terkel

The poor are so busy trying to survive from one day to the next, they haven’t the time or energy to keep score.

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.

People are hungry for stories. It's part of our very being.