Working: People Talk About What They Do All Day and How They Feel About What They Do

by Studs Terkel

Anybody that starts to build anything, stone, rock, or brick, start on the northeast corner. Because when they built King Solomon’s Temple, they started on the northeast corner. To this day, you look at your courthouses, your big public buildings, you look at the cornerstone, when it was created, what year, it will be on the

northeast corner. If I was gonna build a septic tank, I would start on the northeast corner. (Laughs.) Superstition, I suppose.

All my dreams, it seems like it’s got to have a piece of rock mixed in it.

I never saw a priest out in the fields trying to help people. Maybe in these later years they’re doing it. But it’s always the church taking from the people.

I don’t think they’d ever hire a male receptionist. They’d have to pay him more, for one thing.

never answer the phone at home. It carries over. The way I talk to people on the phone has changed. Even when my mother calls, I don’t talk to her very long.

One man said, “I’m lonesome, will you talk to me?” I said, “Gee I’m sorry, I just can’t.” But you can’t. (Laughs.) I’m a communications person but I can’t communicate.