Quotes about storytelling

The story is not in the words; it's in the struggle.

Stories have to be told or they die, and when they die, we can’t remember who we are or why we’re here.

Clean, quick, and easy as lying. We know how it ends practically before it starts. That’s why stories appeal to us. They give us the clarity and simplicity our real lives lack.

“All stories are true,” Skarpi said. “But this one really happened, if that’s what you mean.” He took another slow drink, then smiled again, his bright eyes dancing. “More or less. You have to be a bit of a liar to tell a story the right way. Too much truth confuses the facts. Too much honesty makes you sound insincere.”

War stories aren't really anything more than stories about people anyway.

“Funny, isn’t it, how so many of our stories start the same way, but have opposing endings? In half, the child ignores her parents, wanders out into the woods, and gets eaten. In the other half she discovers great wonders. There aren’t many stories about the kids who say, ‘Yes, I shall not go into the forest. I’m glad my parents explained that is where the monsters live.’”

All stories have been told before. We tell them to ourselves, as did all men who ever were. And all men who ever will be. The only things new are the names.

People see in stories what they’re looking for.

The purpose of a storyteller is not to tell you how to think, but to give you questions to think upon. Too often, we forget that.

Only from our stories can we discover that our stories have come to an end, otherwise we would go on living as if there were still something for us to continue (our stories, for example); that is, we would go on living in error.

People from different parts of the world can respond to the same story if it says something to them about their own history and their own experience.

In the end I began to understand. There is such a thing as absolute power over narrative. Those who secure this privilege for themselves can arrange stories about others pretty much where, and as, they like. Just as in corrupt, totalitarian regimes, those who exercise power over others can do anything.