Writer

“Call me Arnold” is the result of an interview that Studs Terkel conducted with Arnold Schwarzenegger. Louis "Studs" Terkel (b. 1912 – d. 2008) was an American author, historian, actor, and broadcaster. A winner of the Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction in 1985, he is known for his studies of ordinary Americans.

Interviews usually feature the voices of both the interviewer and the interviewee. Since “Call me Arnold” includes just the transcription of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s own words without any direct input from Terkel, we will focus mostly on describing Schwarzenegger in this se…

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Schwarzenegger's dream and determination

Arnold Schwarzenegger (b. 1947) is an Austrian-American who was a world famous body builder and an actor at the time of this interview, having played small roles in a couple of movies. He dreamed of coming to America, because he believes it is the country where you can turn your dreams into reality (p. 19, ll. 82-83).

As a young boy, his dream was to be seen as “something special” (p. 19, l. 70), and he “had a big need for being singled out.” (p. 19, ll. 70-71). He later suggests that it was very important for his success that he had a dream from an early age: “You have to choose at a very early d…

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Philosophy of life

Schwarzenegger's philosophy of life is all about constantly setting new goals. He calls this “the philosophy of staying hungry.” (p. 20, ll. 83-84)

Schwarzenegger is also a believer in America’s philosophy of “success, of progress, of getting rich.” (p. 20, ll. 90-92). Schwarzenegger’s success at the time of the interview is proof that he closely followed this philosophy in his life: He worked hard to achie…