Quotes About Narrative

If I've learned anything in Kabul, it is that human behavior is messy and unpredictable and unconcerned with convenient symmetries. But I find comfort in it, in the idea of a pattern, of a narrative of my life taking shape, like a photograph in a darkroom, a story that slowly emerges and affirms the good I have always wanted to see in myself. It sustains me, this story.

If I've learned anything in Kabul, it is that human behavior is messy and unpredictable and unconcerned with convenient symmetries. But I find comfort in it, in the idea of a pattern, of a narrative of my life taking shape, like a photograph in a darkroom, a story that slowly emerges and affirms the good I have always wanted to see in myself.

O poveste trista. - Cartile bune-s facute din povesti triste. - Da, asa-i.

Sad stories make good books," she said.

Reincarnation is a story we tell; then in the end it's the story itself that is the reincarnation.

The one who tells the stories rules the world.

Because history is the soap opera that hurts, the kabuki with real knives.

Arguments, speculation-- conspiracy theories of all kind. The usual thing, right? No one is ever simply assassinated any more. Ever since your Kennedys, it is always a matter of how many stories you can invent to explain the same body of facts. That is the great pleasure of conspiracy theory--not explanation, but narrative. It is like Scheherazade.

Oh God, Coyote said, and rolled onto his side, propping his head up on one hand. It's hard to remember something that long ago. It's almost like an epic poem I memorized once, and can barely recite anymore.

Ever since your Kennedys, it is always a matter of how many stories you can invent to explain the same body of facts. That is the great pleasure of conspiracy theory—not explanation, but narrative. It is like Scheherazade.

That is the great pleasure of conspiracy theory—not explanation, but narrative. It is like Scheherazade.

He'd told me those slashing marks were our story, to remind him never to trust me. I'd told him history didn't have to repeat itself.

Theirs is a story of woe and warning. Take heed and listen well . . . .

One of the things I find in writing about people who are dead is that, after a short or long time, no matter how close the relationship was, they become like characters in fiction.

It's a luxury to be able to tell a long form story. I love novels, and I love to have a long relationship with characters.

The story of my family. . .changes with the teller.

Religion has what is EASILY the greatest bullshit story of all time.

Miracle: An event described by those to whom it was told by men who did not see it.

Matthew and Luke handle the problem differently, by deciding that Jesus must have been born in Bethlehem after all. But they get him there by different routes.

Myth is what we call other people's religion.

I don't judge my characters, and that's my job not to judge them. It's my job to treat them with respect and to just look at it from their point of view.

[As a conductor] there has to be, between me and the orchestra, an unshakable bond of trust, born out of mutual respect, through which we can spin a musical narrative that we all believe in.

For a story to be told, it must be told properly, and to tell a story properly, it must be told with respect.

If you keep telling the same sad small story. You will keep living the same sad small life.