Celebrating the Third Place Quotes

“As Ray states in The Great Good Place, the nature of a third place is one in which the presence of a "regular" is always welcome, although never required. Membership is a simple, fluid process of frequent social contact, renewed each time by choice of the people involved. Eventually, social bonds develop through a type of informal intimacy. The important aspect of these relationships is that they occur outside of any commitment and exist solely in the realm of basic human respect. I ascribe huge importance to this one point because it is this one valuable kernel that is slipping away from our isolated modern world. I think that we all miss its presence and this affects us all in very slight, painful ways.”
― Ray Oldenburg, Celebrating the Third Place: Inspiring Stories About the "Great Good Places" at the Heart of Our Communities

“We have always hired people with strong personalities. In fact, the only true criterion necessary to work at the Third Place is that one is a nice person—period. The rest can be learned in a day or two. We have consistently relied upon the interesting and colorful personalities of our co-workers at the Third Place to keep the atmosphere intriguing, fresh and new All of the people who have worked with us over the years have taught me something about my business, myself, and the world around me at some point during their tenure, contributing problem-solving skills and for this I am grateful.”
― Ray Oldenburg, Celebrating the Third Place: Inspiring Stories About the Great Good Places at the Heart of Our Communities

“So I took to the road with an accomplice and set off to the golden South, the new land of opportunity, North Carolina. Here, with the help of a partner I had only just met (and on the back porch of a rural farmhouse, to boot!), I was going to simultaneously live my version of the great American dream and enrich the lives of the residents of Raleigh, North Carolina.”
― Ray Oldenburg, Celebrating the Third Place: Inspiring Stories About the Great Good Places at the Heart of Our Communities

“Venues where musicians could interact casually, listen to one another, and learn from one another, together with the benefit of audience reaction to their experimentation, helped drive their music in new directions. Small clubs that offered a hybrid environment somewhere between the highly controlled musical performance of the theater and the audience-less rehearsal hall fundamentally shaped what jazz music would become.”
― Ray Oldenburg, Celebrating the Third Place: Inspiring Stories About the "Great Good Places" at the Heart of Our Communities: Inspiring Stories About the Great Good Places at the Heart of Our Communities

“We are an open mixing place for the general public, but we are strongly committed to bringing together people who may not normally spend time together in the hope that they will become friends, seeking deeper relationships with each other and with the community. A sign I once saw in an old café window proclaimed, "There are no strangers here, just friends who haven't met," and that pretty much captures what we're about.”
― Ray Oldenburg, Celebrating the Third Place: Inspiring Stories About the "Great Good Places" at the Heart of Our Communities