Quotes About Narrative

Let's give the historians something to write about

George Orwell said, "Whoever controls the past controls the future," by which he meant that history is incredibly important in shaping the world view of the next generation of people.

History is written by the victors, but it's victims who write the memoirs.

History is a symphony of echoes heard and unheard. It is a poem with events as verses.

If you want to get an idea across, wrap it up in a person.

History is the autobiography of a madman.

I'm not an artist. An artist makes an object. Me, it's not an object, I work in history, I'm a storyteller.

A people denied history is a people deprived of dignity.

So much history can be lost if no one tells the story -- so that's what I do. I tell the stories. This is my way of fighting for social change.

History is a tragedy, not a morality tale.

History is not a catalogue but...a convincing version of events.

Autobiography is a wound where the blood of history does not dry.

History is written by those who hang heroes.

We must not look at the past with the enormous condescension of posterity.

I hate it when they tell us how far we've came to be; as if our people's history started with slavery.

History is the study of lies, anyway, because no witness ever recalls events with total accuracy, not even eyewitnesses.

The writing of history reflects the interests, predilections, and even prejudices of a given generation.

History isn't really about the past - settling old scores. It's about defining the present and who we are.

The first rough draft of history.

The thing about black history is that the truth is so much more complex than anything you could make up.

History is written by the victors.

All the true heroes of history will be forgotten and all the villains will be remembered as heroes.

People tend to forget that the word "history" contains the word "story".

The writing of histories - as Goethe once noted - is one way of getting rid of the weight of the past.... The writing of history liberates us from history.