“Work is by its very nature, about violence – to the spirit as well as to the body. It is about ulcers as well as accidents, about shouting matches as well as fist fights, about nervous breakdowns as well as kicking the dog around. To survive the day is triumph enough for the walking wounded among the great many among us.
But is a search, too, for daily meaning as well as daily bread, for recognition as well as cash, for astonishment rather than torpor; in short for a sort of life rather than a Monday through Friday sort of dying.
Perhaps immortality, too, is part of the quest.”
- Studs Terkel Working, People Talk About What they do All Day and How they Feel about What They Do
(1974)
