Quotes About Narrative

The curious thing about The Ring and the Book, to which I will now return, is that although each character recounts the same events, and although there is no difference in what they tell, there is a fundamental difference, which belongs to the realm of human psychology, the fact that each of us believes we are justified. For example, the count admits he is a murderer, but the word "murderer" is too general. We know this from reading other books.

La muchacha habló como si estuviera sola y de algún modo yo sentí que no podía pensar en otra cosa y que esa cosa era lo único que le había pasado en la vida. (...) Los años pasan y son tantas las veces que he contado la historia que ya no sé si la recuerdo de veras o si sólo recuerdo las palabras con que la cuento. Tal vez lo mismo le paso a la Cautiva con su malón, Ahora lo mismo da que fuera yo o que fuera otro el que vio matar a Moreira.

Son el irresponsable juego de un tímido que se animó a escribir cuentos y que se distrajo en falsear y tergiversar (sin justificación estética alguna vez) ajenas historias.

C'est une longue histoire, je crois. (...) Je désirais la lui raconter sans détours, mais je ne la voyais pas ainsi. Les histoires sont toujours pleines de détours.

For in a real tragedy, it is not the hero who perishes; it is the chorus.

Stories are so strong because they are alive. A story is like someone you trust to take your hand, lead you on a journey, and then bring you back home again.

Mythology, in other words, is psychology misread as biography, history, and cosmology.

What does the soul truly want is a story

If you're going to have a story, have a big story, or none at all.

Metaphysics yields to prehistory, which is dim and vague at first, but becomes gradually precise in detail. The heroes become less and less fabulous, until at last, in the final stages of the various local traditions, legend opens into the common daylight of recorded time.

If you are going to have a story, have a big story, or none at all.

Mythology is the song. It is the song of the imagination, inspired by the energies of the body.

a complicated story. Indeed all of these get to be pretty complicated. But Isis and her husband Osiris

They come from every culture but with timeless themes. CAMPBELL: The themes are timeless, and the inflection is to the culture.

Myth is much more important and true than history.

We can't have a mythology for a long, long time to come. Things are changing too fast to become mythologized.

Of all liars the most arrogant are biographers: those who would have us believe, having surveyed a few boxes full of letters, diaries, bank statements and photographs, that they can play at the recording angel and tell the whole truth about another human life.

The past actually happened but history is only what someone wrote down.

History is always personal—never more so than for those who find theirs is written by the enemy. It strips the defeated and the displaced of their dignity. It is a posthumous insult.

History is not another name for the past, as many people imply. It is the name for stories about the past.

An interface can be a powerful narrative device. And as we collect more and more personally and socially relevant data, we have an opportunity, and maybe even an obligation, to maintain [our] humanity and tell some amazing stories.

Don't blurt out your theme. Let it emerge from the story.

I'm a storyteller, and it's a storyteller's job to take on other people's voices. To present as real a picture of things as possible. Every storyteller will write a different story.

Stories help me feel complete.