Quotes About Storytelling

And Meredith says that reminds her of a Camus novel, the one about the plague, and she tells the story of it, the tale holding you in thrall, and she ends her version with a line you'll write down in your notebook, the place where the atheist doctor hollers at a priest: All your certainties aren't worth one strand of a woman's hair.

If you let yourself tell those smaller anecdotes or stories, the overarching capital-S Story will eventually rise into view.

The memoirist's job is not to add explosive whammies on every page, but to help the average person come in.

Novels have intricate plots, verse has musical forms, history and biography enjoy the sheen of objective truth. In memoir, one event follows another. Birth leads to puberty leads to sex. The books are held together by happenstance, theme, and (most powerfully) the sheer, convincing poetry of a single person trying to make sense of the past.

The difference between mad people and sane people," Brave Orchid explained to the children, "is that sane people have variety when they talk story. Mad people have only one story that they talk over and over." Maxine Hong Kingston, The Woman Warrior

I've plumb forgot where I am for an instant, which is how a good lie should take you.

Don't approach your history as something to be shaken for its cautionary fruit…Tell your stories, and your story will be revealed…Don't be afraid of appearing angry, small-minded, obtuse, mean, immoral, amoral, calculating, or anything else. Take no care for your dignity. Those were hard things for me to come by, and I offer them to you for what they may be worth.

It was an old game for us. Tell me a story, she liked to say, meaning charm me—my life in this Texas suckhole is duller than a rubber knife. Amaze me. If I ever wonder what made me a writer—if I tug the thread of that urgent need I have to put marks on paper, it invariably leads me back to Mother, sprawled in bed with a luminous hangover, and how some book of rhymes I've done in crayon and stapled together could puncture the soap bubble of her misery.

No matter how many tangents he took or how far the tale flew from its starting point before he reeled it back, he had this gift: he knew how to be believed.

Weaved a different story in my head Painted it like glitter in the swamp

Instructions for living a life: Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it.

I will tell my story, and my reader shall judge for me. I will tell my story, and so contrive to pass some few hours of a long eternity, become so worrisome to me.

I did not make myself the heroine of my tales. Life appeared to me too common-place an affair as regarded myself. I could not figure to myself that romantic woes or wonderful events would ever by my lot; but I was not confided to my own identify, and I could people the hours with creations far more interesting to me at that age than my own sensations.

I busied myself to think of a story, —a story to rival those which had excited us to this task. One which would speak to the mysterious fears of our nature, and awaken thrilling horror—one to make the reader dread to look round, to curdle the blood, and quicken the beatings of the heart.

These tales excited in us a playful desire of imitation.

A journalist who assumes that Trump's intention is unknowable, that repeated false statements—when the truth is indeed knowable—do not, factually, constitute lying, is abdicating the responsibility to tell the story, to provide the context of what happened a year ago, yesterday, or even in parallel with the lying. The journalist becomes complicit in creating the bizarre sense of ahistoricism of the Trump era, which seems to exist only, ever, in the current moment.

To Teach a Lesson Often, stories uncover a gem or life lesson that will only be revealed at the end of the story. With

Again, if it successfully opens, you can transition into a story to build more of a connection and establish rapport, since you know the attraction is already there.

Begin Stories With A Hint or Question A good way to capture people's attention and begin telling a story is by giving a small hint of what is to come. For example, you could start a story with, "Something hilarious happened at work yesterday," or "The craziest thing happened to me yesterday," or "I was so happy this morning.

One of the best ways to tell a story is to add emotion to it.  I must admit that it's generally easier for women to do this than men. But

Probing Probing is the art of asking the right question at the right time. Throughout the story, you can ask your audience some questions. After relating or telling your story, you can ask your audience about their perceptions and opinions to learn if anything needs to be changed for the next time you tell the story. Do

When a storyteller can relate a story to the audience, it causes listeners' ears to perk up. The

Betsy liked to read her stories aloud and she read them like an actress. She made her voice low and thrillingly deep. She made it shake with emotion. She laughed mockingly and sobbed wildly when the occasion required.

when something happens to me - good, bad, boring it doesn't matter - I have to tell someone to make it count. There's no point in anything happening if you can't talk about it.