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Charlie LeDuff Quotes

We are born to a time. What you do with it is on you. Do the best you can. Try to be good. And live.

We are born to a time. What you do with it is on you. Do the best you can. Try to be good. And live.

Charlie LeDuff
Trying, Born, Be Good
Charlie LeDuff (2013). “Detroit: An American Autopsy”, p.184, Penguin

There's not much a newspaper reporter can do about dead men. But a newspaper reporter and a cop and a judge can deliver some justice. That's why the founding fathers wrote it up the way they did, I suppose. Life. Liberty. Pursuit of happiness. Everyone is entitled to those things.

Charlie LeDuff
Father, Pursuit Of Happiness, Men
Charlie LeDuff (2013). “Detroit: An American Autopsy”, p.164, Penguin

Since its founding, Detroit has been a place of perpetual flames. Three times the city has suffered race riots and three times the city has burned to the ground. The city's flag acknowledges as much. Speramus Meliora; Resurget Cineribus: We hope for better things; it shall rise from the ashes.

Charlie LeDuff
Race, Flames, Cities
Charlie LeDuff (2013). “Detroit: An American Autopsy”, p.33, Penguin

At the end of the day, the Detroiter may be the most important American there is because no one knows better than he that we're all standing at the edge of the shaft.

Charlie LeDuff
The End Of The Day, Important, May
Charlie LeDuff (2013). “Detroit: An American Autopsy”, p.11, Penguin

Some people are doomed from birth because their environment is so toxic.

Charlie LeDuff
People, Toxic, Birth
Charlie LeDuff (2013). “Detroit: An American Autopsy”, p.170, Penguin

New York is a glamorous city, constituted mostly of nobodies. They crave the lights, and if they tell you differently, they're lying. Only dreamers come to New York. As a matter of course, few people have control of their lives. You live at the whim of your boss, your landlord, your grocer, the stranger, the judge, the bus driver, the mayor who won't let you smoke. On the other hand, you live at the whim of your whims, and that is the most exciting thing there is.

Charlie LeDuff
New York, Lying, Light
Charlie LeDuff (2004). “Work and Other Sins: Life in New York City and Thereabouts”, p.24, Penguin

What our generation failed to learn was the nobility of work. An honest day's labor. The worthiness of the man in the white socks who would pull out a picture of his grandkids from his wallet. For us, the factory would never do. And turning away from our birthright - our grandfather in the white socks - is the thing that ruined us.

Charlie LeDuff
Men, Our Generation, White
Charlie LeDuff (2013). “Detroit: An American Autopsy”, p.27, Penguin

Go ahead and laugh at Detroit. Because you are laughing at yourself.

Charlie LeDuff
Laughing, Detroit, Laugh At Yourself
Charlie LeDuff (2013). “Detroit: An American Autopsy”, p.10, Penguin

And then I settled into the most natural thing for a man with no real talents. Journalism.

Charlie LeDuff
Real, Men, Journalism
Charlie LeDuff (2013). “Detroit: An American Autopsy”, p.8, Penguin

Speramus Meliora; Resurget Cineribus: We hope for better things; it shall rise from the ashes.

Charlie LeDuff
Ashes
Charlie LeDuff (2013). “Detroit: An American Autopsy”, p.33, Penguin

But wanderlust is like a pretty girl - you wake up one morning, find she's grown old and decide that either you're going to commit your life or you're going to walk away.

Charlie LeDuff
Girl, Travel, Morning
Charlie LeDuff (2013). “Detroit: An American Autopsy”, p.9, Penguin

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