Quotes About Narrative

Historical mythmaking is made possible only by forgetting.

What separates history from myth is that history takes in the whole picture, whereas myth averts our eyes from the truth when it turns men into heroes and gods.

And so the great American saga, as taught, excludes the very pertinent fact that after the 1630s, less than half came to Massachusetts for religious reasons.

the great American saga, as taught, excludes the very pertinent fact that after the 1630s, less than half came to Massachusetts for religious reasons.

The argument of this book is that America's class history is a more complicated story than we've previously considered. The past informs the present.

Beginning with sin instead of creation is like trying to read a book by opening it in the middle: You don't know the characters and can't make sense of the plot.

Every history book, no matter how ostensibly objective, is basically lies filtered through bias and a certain amount of relative ignorance.

Breaking Down the Wall of Silence: The Liberating Experience of Facing Painful Truth.

we tinker with actuality in order to transform the tale told by an idiot into an orderly, self-serving narrative.

There is no such thing as an immutable truth, much as our hearts might yearn for it and our justice systems demand it; there are only the stories we tell ourselves.

Storytelling is the most powerful way to put ideas into the world

The survivor gets to tell the story.

Beneath every story, there is another story. There is a hand within the hand...... There is a blow behind the blow.

Beneath every story, there is another story. There is a hand within the hand - hasn't Allie learned that well enough? There is a blow behind the blow.

Writing is storytelling, and storytelling, after all, is play." Naomi Alderman

Forget the story.

History is a myth men want to believe.

What is history but a fable agreed upon ?

History is a series of lies on which we agree.

History is a myth that men agree to believe.

History is the version of past events that people have decided to agree upon.

To write history one must be more than a man, since the author who holds the pen of this great justiciary must be free from all preoccupation of interest or vanity.

Qu'est ce que l'histoire, sinon une fable sur laquelle tout le monde est d'accord.

Begin with "I remember." Write lots of small memories. If you fall into one large memory, write that. Just keep going. Don't be concerned if the memory happened five seconds ago or five years ago.