Quotes About Storytelling

That illustrates my rule of thumb for reading history: View with suspicion any anecdote that makes a good enough story to have survived on its literary merits.

Some stories have a beginning, a middle, and an end. Other stories never end, maybe because they're alive.

Remember, a great tale isn't just about you.  Ultimately, the reader should close your book and feel that a connection has been made, to realize with wonder and delight that "This story is about me.

Of course, the fact that Dostoevsky can tell a juicy story isn't enough to make him great. If it were, Judith Krantz and John Grisham would be great fiction writers, and by any but the most commercial standards they're not even very good.

Mettiamo che Nonna mi abbia detto in maniera parecchio convincente che tutto ciò che davvero esiste della mia vita è limitato a quello che se ne può raccontare. Be', credo che non sia esattamente che la vita va raccontata anziché vissuta; è piuttosto che la vita è il suo racconto, e che in me non c'è niente che non sia o raccontato o raccontabile. Ma se è davvero così, allora che differenza c'è, perché vivere?

Fictionally speaking, desire is the sugar in human food.

To those great geniuses now in petticoats, who shall write novels for the beloved reader's children, these men and things will be as much legend and history as Nineveh, or Coeur de Lion, or Jack Sheppard.

And she began, forthwith, to tell her story—a tale so neat, simple, and artless that it was quite evident from hearing her that if ever there was a white-robed angel escaped from heaven to be subject to the infernal machinations and villainy of fiends here below, that spotless being—that miserable unsullied martyr, was present on the bed before Jos—on the bed, sitting on the brandy-bottle.

It's too bad for us 'literary' enthusiast, but it's the truth nevertheless — pictures tell any story more effectively than words.

Your tale, sir, would cure deafness.

We two alone will sing like birds i' th' cage. When thou dost ask me blessing, I'll kneel down And ask of thee forgiveness. So we'll live, And pray, and sing, and tell old tales, and laugh At gilded butterflies, and hear poor rogues Talk of court news, and we'll talk with them too— Who loses and who wins, who's in, who's out— And take upon 's the mystery of things As if we were God's spies.

Later these tales would be retold and embellished by the genius of Mallory, Spenser, and Tennyson.

Churchill used words for different purposes: to argue for moral and political causes, to advocate courses of action in the social, national and international spheres, and to tell the story of his own life and that of Britain and its place in the world.

I want to tell you a terrific story about oral contraception. I asked this girl to sleep with me and she said 'No.

Is this not the quintessence of hypocrisy when Ronan writes a book critical of NBC for trying to kill his story on Harvey Weinstein? But, I guess whatever works.

Qué es una vida de verdad? ¿Cuando vas a la escuela? ¿Cuando tienes trabajo?¿Cuando vas al trabajo y dejas a tus hijos en la escuela? ¿Cuando tienes las suficientes fotos para llenar un álbum? Cuando puede contarla, supongo.

I have a story that will make you believe in God.

The world isn't just the way it is. It's how we understand it, no? And in understanding something, we bring something to it, no? Doesn't that make life a story?

Isn't telling about something--using words, English or Japanese--already something of an invention? Isn't just looking upon this world already something of an invention? The world isn't just the way it is. It is how we understand it, no? And in understanding something, we bring something to it, no? Doesn't that make life a story?

The world isn't just the way it is. It is how we understand it, no? And in understanding something, we bring something to it, no? Doesn't that make life a story?

I am a shepherd, too, like Polyphemus, so I knew all about it.

The friend of wisdom is also a friend of the myth. —ARISTOTLE

Canada is a myth people made up to entertain children, like the Tooth Fairy. There's no such place.

I've always been a movie guy, movies have been my thing. I love movies, all kinds of movies.