Quotes About Storytelling

When I was preparing for '1994,' the song for Deena and Sam was 'Fast Car' by Tracy Chapman. I just really love that song so much, and I think the lyrics really hit home and reminded me of their dynamic.

One of my goals always, when I write music, is that it's not only me sharing my story with the fans: it's also a reminder to myself that, 'Hey, I said this so that I need to grow from it.'

That reminds me of something that happened to me when I was a kid.

When I sat down to write I just felt like a geek writing about myself. And then it dawned on me, just because of the way I am, I can't stop talking, and part of the problem is that anything that gets said reminds me of something that happened to me one time, and invariably I cut people off and talk about myself.

I want to bring drawing back to the basics, make it about the pleasure that it can afford and remove the notion that it's some kind of precious or difficult activity. It's another way of telling a story.

The alternative to the corporate media is a renaissance of citizen journalism emerging around world - exploring the different avenues that do exist, like podcasts, to tell whatever story you want to tell.

Novels attempt to render human experience; that's really all they are. They are meant to convey empathy for the character.

The hardest part is writing a song as a story. A song is so short and there are only so many words that every line has to hit. The words have to flow. You can't say certain words that sound weird next to each other, you can't repeat words too much.

Every comic can report a few 'gift from the gods' moments.

I'm a reporter - if I don't interview someone, I don't have much to say, and I definitely can't just sit down and knock out 800 words on any subject you give me.

Everybody has an iPhone; everyone can be a reporter now. Everybody can tell a story from every part of the world. Why places like CNN matter is that it is still important to bring them together, put context around it, and explain it.

There are certain stories that remind you of the moral purpose that originally drew you to become a reporter.

When I set out to write, I see it very visually. I almost feel like a reporter. I'm relating what I'm seeing and hearing, so it's kind of watching a play for me.

I'm just a reporter.

The remarkable thing about 9/11 was that journalism pretty much put down its badges. People didn't worry about reacting as human beings. People who weren't reporters reported. David Letterman was sort of a brilliant reporter for a second - but it was a way nobody had ever covered a story. They just presented what was inside themselves.

I tend to gravitate toward reporters who cover all aspects of the story: from personal aspects to the big picture that answer the 'so what' of a story.

Photographers do more assignments than reporters do, so they know their communities better.

There are a lot of reporters who I feel are a lot more courageous and fool-hardy than I am. Maybe at the top I'd put Dexter Filkins. He's an extraordinary man in terms of his nerve and ability to get into dangerous situations and tell the story cogently. He's bringing back real human stories. I admire that.

The dirty little secret of foreign correspondents is that 90 per cent of it is showing up. If you can find a way to get there, the story, the reporting, it's the easiest you'll ever do. 'Cause the drama's everywhere.

I approach writing stories as a recorder. I think of my role as some kind of reporting device - recording and projecting.

I don't see the value of boringly reporting the cold facts.

I remember doing 'The Long Fall of One-Eleven Heavy,' and I'd been reporting that story for a long time; I had a lot of good facts, but I had no story. I didn't know what the story was.

I would love to see more women directors because they represent half of the population - and gave birth to the whole world. Without them writing and being directors, the rest of us are not going to know the whole story.

You become a different writer when you approach a short story. When things are not always having to represent other things, you find real human beings begin to cautiously appear on your pages.