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

In order for us, black and white, to disenthrall ourselves from the harshest slavemaster, racism, we must disinter our buried history.... We are all the Pilgrim, setting out on this journey.

Chicago is not the most corrupt American city. It's the most theatrically corrupt.

I'm not an optimist. I'm hopeful.

But once you become active in something, something happens to you. You get excited and suddenly you realize you count.

The issue is jobs. You can't get away from it: jobs. Having a buck or two in your pocket and feeling like somebody.

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.