Quotes About Narrative

However appalling to consider, however tedious to enact, every novel requires furniture, whether it is to be named or unnamed, for the characters will be unable to remain in standing position for the duration of the story.

Response to the question by The Atlantic: Who is the Greatest Fictional Character of All Time? God is the author of all the other characters, and of all the other authors of all the other characters, unless he doesn't exist--and said existence, in its disputation, is one of the greatest ongoing narratives in human storytelling.

It's easier to be a character in a story than the star of your own tragedy.

Why did God create mankind? Because God likes stories.

I will describe my eyes and then begin the story. My eyes are blue and resplendent. Now I will begin the story.

Our stories are so fundamental to us that it's easy to forget that we choose them.

En el origen de toda historia yace siempre una ausencia

will describe my eyes and then begin the story. My eyes are blue and resplendent. Now I will begin the story.

Kein briere iz oich a breire. Not to have a choice is also a choice. How will we tell the story of he who never had no choice? At stake is our notion of righteousness, of a life worth saving.

We are not only the tellers of our stories, we are the stories themselves.

Lo so che mi hai chiesto di non cambiare gli sbagli perché hanno un suono buffo, e il buffo è l'unico modo veritiero di raccontare una storia triste.

We could retell our stories and make them better, more representational or aspirational. Or we could choose to tell different stories. The world itself had another chance.

All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others." The protective emphasis is not a law of nature; it comes from the stories we tell about nature.

I want to tell you everything, without leaving out a single detail. But where is the beginning? And what is everything?

A shared narrative future -- as expressed in such statements as Yes, I'll come to the picnic next Friday -- defines socially shared predictability of behavior. Prolonged contact with the enemy teaches that predictability is fatal . Being unpredictable is a basic survival skill in combat, where the enemy is ever observant. Many of the veterans in our program take different routes to the clinic every time they come.

Nothing except love itself touches us so intimately and forcibly as a good story told exactly right.

Stories help children sleep but also awaken adults.

I have no way of knowing whether the events that I am about to narrate are effects or causes.

The years go by, and I've told the story so many times that I'm not sure anymore whether I actually remember it or whether I just remember the words I tell it with.

It also occurred to him that throughout history, humankind has told two stories: the story of a lost ship sailing the Mediterranean seas in quest of a beloved isle, and the story of a god who allows himself to be crucified on Golgotha.

The central problem of novel-writing is causality.

The years pass and I've told this story so many times I no longer know whether I remember it as it was or whether it's only my words I'm remembering.

My story will be true to reality or, in any case, to my personal memory of reality, which amounts to the same thing.

La historia era increíble, en efecto, pero se impuso a todos, porque sustancialmente era cierta. Verdadero era el tono de Emma Zunz, verdadero el pudor, verdadero el odio. Verdadero también era el ultraje que había padecido; sólo eran falsas las circunstancias, la hora y uno o dos nombres propios.