Quotes About Storytelling

The shortest distance between truth and a human being is a story.

And doesn't a writer do the same thing? Isn't she knitting together scraps of dreams? She hunts down the most vivid details and links them in sequences that will let a reader see, smell, and hear a world that seems complete in itself; she builds a stage set and painstakingly hides all the struts and wires and nail holes, then stands back and hopes whoever might come to see it will believe.

As I work on yet another draft of my story, I try to remember these lessons. A journal entry is for its writer; it helps its writer refine, perceive, and process the world. But a story—a finished piece of writing—is for its reader; it should help its reader refine, perceive, and process the world—the one particular world of the story, which

And the tale I have to tell is so ludicrous, so incredible, that you'll never believe a word of it, and yet' – she taps the end of his nose – 'it's true.

Because if it's told well enough, for as long as the story lasts, you get to slip the trap.

It's a long story. Do you want to hear a long story?

A fourteen-year-old girls sits cross-legged on the floor of a circular vault. "And the tale I have to tell is so ludicrous, so incredible, that you'll never believe a word of it, and yet"—she taps the end of his nose—"it's true.

what I really wanted to do was write a story that was all backstory, in which multiple protagonists, none of whom are exactly likable, wake up, tell lots of different stories inside the story, argue significant moral points, then wake up a second time and realize the whole thing was a dream.

Thucydides is the greatest writer of history in history. In fact, he is so good that we are trapped inside his version of events.

In Appalachia, everyone has a fierce granny story.

Why would I believe someone who spends his entire life making stuff up?

Anthony Horowitz

Anthony Horowitz

Bad Boys was nothing less than a complete travesty of the truth. It turned my parents into the villains of the piece.

Animation is a fascinating area from an acting point of view because it's not really like anything else because you are only providing a portion of the performance. That's very inspiring and it forces you to do things in a different way - to tell stories through your voice.

There's a difference between telling a story and not providing an explanation because you just don't do it well or pull it off.

What's most important is to create an atmosphere that's real, providing characters the audience can root for. Once they become emotionally attached, that's the secret in building a show. The audience can see themselves in these characters, and they respond to the stories.

I want film stories to provoke a question in people about what's going on emotionally around them and empower them in some way or ask them about themselves.

I want to do roles that provoke us to think differently or realise ourselves in a new light. Characters of women who have an interesting story to tell. I'd love to do a period film, an action film, a character study.

I think I'm interested in these kinds of character dramas, psychological dramas, domestic dramas, whatever you want to call them - comedy dramas.

I spent a whole 12 years helping other people tell their stories as a publicist, so just to be able to go and write and get behind the camera, that's my thing.

People can see themselves in a story much easier than they can see themselves in a hypothetical situation that a brand might present to them. So telling stories to build a relationship with your audience is usually far more effective than other methods of marketing or publicity.

Crime fiction makes money. It may be harder for writers to get published, but crime is doing better than most of what we like to call CanLit. It's elementary, plot-driven, character-rich story-telling at its best.

The story wrote quickly. I called it 'Where You're From,' and I sent it out, as I had numerous other stories over the years. Except this time I got a letter back saying that it would be published. Someone out there had liked the story. I was thirty-one years old.