Marvin Miller, I suspect, is the most effective union organizer since John L. Lewis.

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

One night a guy hit his head on a welding gun. He went to his knees. He was bleeding like a pig, blood was oozing out. So I stopped the line for a second and ran over to help him. The foreman turned the line on again, he almost stepped on the guy. That's the first thing they always do. They didn't even call an ambulance. The guy walked to the medic department -- that's about half a mile -- he had about five stitches put in his head. The foreman didn't say anything. He just turned the line on. You're nothing to any of them.

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

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

If there is knowledge, it lies in the fusion of the book and the street.

Heroes are not giant statues framed against a red sky. They are people who say: This is my community, and it is my responsibility to make it better. Interweave all these communities and you really have an America that is back on its feet again. I really think we are gonna have to reassess what constitutes a 'hero'.