Alan Dundes Quotes & Sayings

“If a student takes the whole series of my folklore courses including the graduate seminars, he or she should learn something about fieldwork, something about bibliography, something about how to carry out library research, and something about how to publish that research.”

“Future orientation is combined with a notion and expectation of progress, and nothing is impossible.”

“Polls are frequently taken to try to tease out or determine likely directions and trends, but once taken, they belong to the past, requiring that new polls be taken.”

“Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.”

“The class has become over the years fairly large, running to three hundred or more, but I always insist upon reading all the student folklore collections myself. Although this is a tall order, I look forward to it because I learn so much from it.”

“They do not merely collect texts; they must also gather data about the context and the informant and, above all, write an analysis of the items based upon the course readings and lecture material on folklore theory and method.”

“Cities all over the world are getting bigger as more and more people move from rural to urban sites, but that has created enormous problems with respect to environmental pollution and the general quality of life.”

“Their term project consists of a fieldwork collection of folklore that they create by interviewing family members, friends, or anyone they can manage to persuade to serve as an informant.”

“My academic identity is that of a folklorist, and for many years I have taught only folklore courses.”

“Life, it seems, is nothing if not a series of initiations, transitions, and incorporations.”