We often have an exaggerated sense of what nonprofits and governments are doing to help the poor, but … - Katherine Boo

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It reminded me of talking, how what is said is never quite what was thought, and what is heard is never quite what was said. It wasn’t much in the way of comfort, but everything has a little failure in it, and we still make do somehow.

Katherine Boo

We often have an exaggerated sense of what nonprofits and governments are doing to help the poor, but the really inspiring thing is how much the poor are doing to help themselves.

Government, Governments, Help, Helping, Nonprofits, Poor

Same Author Quotes

But if writing about people who are not yourself is illegitimate, then the only legitimate work is autobiography; and as a reader and a citizen, I don’t want to live in that world.

Citizens, Legitimate, People, Writing

. . . much of what was said did not matter, and that much of what mattered could not be said.

Matter, Mattered, Said

My job is to lay it out clearly, not to give my policy prescriptions. Very little journalism is world changing. But if change is to happen, it will be because people with power have a better sense of what’s happening to people who have none.

Give, Giving, Jobs, People, Prescriptions, World

In my kind of reporting work, you don't parachute in after some big, terrible event, which is important and has to be covered, but offers only a glimpse. It's the kind of work in which you ask, what is my understanding of how the world works, and where can I go to see these questions get worked out in individuals' lives? That was really the question for me: whether I had anything to add to what had already been written.

Important, Reporting, See, Understanding, World, Written

I'm useless when I meet writers I love - I go slack-jawed and stupid with awe.

Awe, Stupid, Useless, Writers