Quotes About Narratives

As far as characters that are written as Muslims, we're only seeing one dimension. It's either the good Muslim who is helping the FBI, or the taxi driver-terrorist bundled in one.

We are good at stories. We hoard them, like an old woman in a room full of boxes, but now and then we pull out our best, and spread them out. We talk of the bad years when the cotton didn't open, and the day my cousin Wanda was washed in the Blood. We buff our beloved ancestors until they are smooth of sin, and give our scoundrels a hard shake, although sometimes we can't remember exactly which is who.

Presidents are also always storytellers, purveyors of useful national mythologies.

Platte River Road Narratives

If we can make it look like we are not really responsible for our fate, for what happens to us in life, then our apparent powerlessness is more palatable. For this reason we become attracted to certain narratives: it is genetics that determines much of what we do; we are just products of our times; the individual is just a myth; human behavior can be reduced to statistical trends.

We need to incorporate the contagion of narratives into economic theory. Otherwise, we remain blind to a very real, very palpable, very important mechanism for economic change, as well as a crucial element for economic forecasting. If we do not understand the epidemics of popular narratives, we do not fully understand changes in the economy and in economic behavior.

narratives are major vectors of rapid change in culture, in zeitgeist, and in economic behavior.

It may seem odd that the term unemployment rate did not receive more coverage in the 1930s, but the lack of coverage may reflect the public's lack of familiarity with its quantitative representation. They did not yet clearly differentiate between involuntary unemployment and laziness and pauperism. In contrast, today's narratives focus on blameless unemployment, the unemployment of those sincerely trying to find a job.

I am a student of history," she said at last, "a collector of old stories.

It matters what myths we tell ourselves -- which ideals we choose to honor.

Nothing new has ever happened to aq son of Adam, she said. Everything has already been lived and everything has already been told. If only we listened to the stories.

Sometimes life is hard for a good reason. Sometimes narratives serve no purpose beyond keeping you from the life you want.

Delicacy - a sad, sad false delicacy - robs literature of the two best things among its belongings: Family-circle narratives & obscene stories.

Science is a collection of stories, linking characters worthy of notice.

Stories are where memories go when they're forgotten...

He admired writers whose own stories were as interesting as the ones they wrote.

Sodium filament and neon. Interstate 95 at midnight. America's spinal cord, splicing lifelines and destinies and unrelated narratives.

These are weighty topics, and the brief fables that address them do not claim to solve the problems that they embody, but then neither do they simply brush such problems aside, pretending that they do not exist.

Overcoming childhood could be understood as an attempt to correct the false stories of others.

Existen personas. Existen historias. Las personas creen modelar las historias, pero lo contrario suele acercarse más a la verdad. Las historias modelan el mundo. Existen independientemente de las gentes. En lugares donde no hay hombres, también hay mitologías. Los glaciares tienen sus leyendas. El océano canta sus propios romances.

Everything is made of stories. They've all happened before, in similar circumstances. It's like a circle. It goes round and round and round.

Unlike Greek narratives, where achievement is celebrated, and biblical narratives, where submission and discipline are celebrated, in Indic thought understanding is celebrated.

More often than not, family stories turn out to be etched in sand rather than granite. Even the parts we think are true—even the parts about ourselves—crumble under scrutiny. These are the lies we tell everyone who knows us. These are the lies we tell ourselves.

Everybody has a story. It's like families. You might not know who they are, might have lost them, but they exist all the same. You might drift apart or you might turn your back on them, but you can't say you haven't got them. Same goes for stories.