Quotes About Narrative

In photography, the smallest thing can be a great subject. The little, human detail can become a Leitmotiv.

If it is properly done, the 'as told to' autobiography represents how the subject wants his story told.

I think the greatest thing about making a documentary is your ability to just follow the story and the subject.

A great story poorly told doesn't do anybody any good at all, and nobody wants to hear it, and nobody wants to read it. The craft of it is really more important than the subject matter.

That's what storytelling is. It's excising the demons and taking a look at the hard subjects.

I look for subjects who have stories to tell - who are looking to tell something.

There is, I think, great difficulty in writing of one's self: it is almost impossible to present subjects where the chief actor must be conspicuous and not seem to be, or really be, egotistical.

The thing about documentary is that you don't really choose your subjects: they come and grab you out of your bed.

I love the challenge of taking these really complicated subjects and trying to humanise them.

I don't subscribe to the narrative that Africa is backward because of colonialism.

'Main Hoon Na' will always be special since it was my first film but in my subsequent films, I was trying to show off with gimmicks that didn't aid the narrative in any way.

Generally speaking, we as black people have been celebrated more for when we are subservient when we are not being leaders or kings or in the center of our own narrative driving it forward.

The music is the emotional substance of the show; the book just sets it up. Nobody goes to a musical to hear the book. That's the way it works.

I make it a point to pick films that tell you a story in an engaging way. I can't compromise on the content. The script has to be substantial and impactful.

In film, because you know where the ending is, characters can change, but in television, you substitute revelation for change, and that can be hard to pull off.

It's always a balance between something that touches you intimately and something that you think is going to be generous - I like to find intimate, subtle subjects and bring them into strong story telling.

My kids speak of both subtle slights and blatant racism. It's a narrative I never imagined for them.

I feel like if you really know the ending right from the beginning, you can add so many subtleties and little things later that will pay off and be more consistent and more rewarding for the reader.

I grew up in the D.C. suburbs, and what I like about that place is that there's not a strong regional affect in the cultural imagination like there is in Dallas or San Francisco or New York City. You have a little more freedom as a novelist this way. The suburbs become a generic idea, and the place doesn't intrude into the narrative.

I shall cheerfully bear the reproach of having descended below the dignity of history if I can succeed in placing before the English of the nineteenth century a true picture of the life of their ancestors.

Get Candidates Telling Stories About Themselves Rather than Reciting Facts or Canned Answers A simple question designed to elicit a story, such as "What did you do this morning?," is a good way to begin to get to know a person without being threatening.

Cette attitude non héroïque a cependant un inconvénient : c'est qu'elle se prête mal aux récits ou en tous les cas aux récits de facture classique ; or la fonction narrative est indispensable dans toute société.

L'Histoire l'emporte sur la mémoire, or l'Histoire a besoin de héros.

In Socrates' time, an orator was accustomed to ask his audience which genre or mode of expression was preferred: myth i.e., narrative-- or logical argumentation? In the age of the book, this decision cannot be left to the audience: the choice must be made in order for the book to exist and one merely imagines (or hopes for) an audience that will have given one answer rather than the other; one also tries to listen to the answer suggested or imposed by the subject itself.