Quotes About Story and Storytelling

8/13/2019 Quotes About Story and Storytelling

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Quotes about Story and StorytellingBy: Patti J. ChristensenThe destiny of the world is determined less by the battles that are lost and won than by thestories it loves and believes in. Harold Goddard

If you dont know the trees you may be lost in the forest, but if you dont know the storiesyou may be lost in life. Siberian Elder

Life itself is the most wonderful fairytale of all. Hans Christian Andersen

There have been great societies that did not use the wheel, but there have been no societiesthat did not tell stories. Ursula K. LeGuin

If stories come to you, care for them. And learn to give them away where they are needed.

Sometimes a person needs a story more than food to stay alive.Barry Lopez, in Crow and Weasel

Those who do not have power over the story that dominates their lives, the power to retellit, rethink it, deconstruct it, joke about it, and change it as times change, truly are

powerless, because they cannot think new thoughts. Salman Rushdie

God made man because he loves stories. Rabbi Nachman of Bratzlev (as quoted by Steve

Sanfield)

If you keep telling the same sad small story, you will keep living the same sad small life. Jean Houston

Australian Aborigines say that the big storiesthe stories worth telling and retelling, the

ones in which you may find the meaning of your lifeare forever stalking the right teller,sniffing and tracking like predators hunting their prey in the bush. Robert Moss,

Dreamgates

Stories live in your blood and bones, follow the seasons and light candles on the darkestnight-every storyteller knows she or he is also a teacher... Patti Davis

Stories are the creative conversion of life itself into a more powerful, clearer, moremeaningful experience. They are the currency of human contact. Robert McKee

Because there is a natural storytelling urge and ability in all human beings, even just a littlenurturing of this impulse can bring about astonishing and delightful results. Nancy Mellon,

The Art of Storytelling

Stories are how we learn. The progenitors of the worlds religions understood this, handingdown our great myths and legends from generation to generation. Bill Mooney and DavidHolt, The Storytellers Guide

History is nothing but a series of stories, whether it be world history or family history. BillMooney and David Holt, The Storytellers Guide


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A writers brain is like a magicians hat. If youre going to get anything out of it, you have to

put something in it first. Louis LAmour

All human beings have an innate need to hear and tell stories and to have a story to live by... religion, whatever else it has done, has provided one of the main ways of meeting thisabiding need. Harvey Cox, The Seduction of the Spirit

Storytelling is the most powerful way to put ideas into the world today. Robert McKee

The universe is made of stories, not atoms. Muriel Rukeyser

I wanted a perfect ending. Now Ive learned, the hard way, that some poems dont rhyme,and some stories dont have a clear beginning, middle, and end. Life is about not knowing,

having to change, taking the moment and making the best of it, without knowing whatsgoing to happen next. Delicious Ambiguity Gilda Radner

Those times of depression tell you that its either time to get out of the story youre in and

move into a new story, or that youre in the right story but theres some piece of it you are

not living out. Carol S. Pearson

It takes a thousand voices to tell a single story. Native American saying

I will tell you something about stories, (he said) They arent just entertainment. Dont be

fooled. They are all we have, you see, All we have to fight off illness and death LeslieMarmon Silko

Everyone is necessarily the hero of his own life story. John Barth

In seeking truth you have to get both sides of a story. Walter Cronkite

When you do enough research, the story almost writes itself. Lines of development springloose and youll have choices galore. Robert McKee

If you tell me, its an essay. If you show me, its a story. Barbara Greene

Dont say the old lady screamed-bring her on and let her scream. Mark Twain

When Stories nestle in the body, soul comes forth. Deena Metzger

Its no coincidence that just at this point in our insight into our mysteriousness as human

beings struggling towards compassion, we are also moving into an awakened interest in thelanguage of myth and fairy tale. The language of logical arguments, of proofs, is the

language of the limited self we know and can manipulate. But the language of parable andpoetry, of storytelling, moves from the imprisoned language of the provable into the freedlanguage of what I must, for lack of another word, continue to call faith. Madeleine LEngle

Story is far older than the art of science and psychology, and will always be the elder in theequation no matter how much time passes. Clarissa Pinkola Estes

I am a storyteller. The type that went from place to place, gathered people in the square

and transported them, inspired them, woke them up, shook their insides around so that they


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word. The story words unique to a culture reveal cultural differences. Roger C. Shank,

from Tell Me A Story

Their story, yours and mine -- its what we all carry with us on this trip we take, and we oweit to each other to respect our stories and learn from them. William Carlos Williams

We are the first generation bombarded with so many stories from so many authorities, noneof which are our own. The parable of the postmodern mind is the person surrounded by amedia center: three television screens in front of them giving three sets of stories; fax

machines bringing in other stories; newspapers providing still more stories. In a sense, we

are saturated with stories; were saturated with points of view. But the effect of beingbombarded with all of these points of view is that we dont have a point of view and we dont

have a story. We lose the continuity of our experiences; we become people who are writtenon from the outside. Sam Keen

Wherever a story comes from, whether it is a familiar myth or a private memory, theretelling exemplifies the making of a connection from one pattern to another: a potentialtranslation in which narrative becomes parable and the once upon a time comes to stand for

some renascent truth. This approach applies to all the incidents of everyday life: the phrasein the newspaper, the endearing or infuriating game of a toddler, the misunderstanding atthe office. Our species thinks in metaphors and learns through stories. Mary CatherineBateson

Many people dont realize the extent to which stories influence our behavior and even shape

our culture. Think about how Bible stories teach the fundamentals of religion and rules of

conduct. Think of the fables and parables that molded your values. Think of how storiesabout your national, cultural or family history have shaped your attitudes about yourself andothers. Lawrence Shapiro, in How to Raise a Child With a High EQ: A Parents Guide to

Emotional Intelligence

Storytelling is relating a tale to one or more listeners through voice and gesture. It is not the

same as reading a story aloud or reciting a piece from memory or acting out a drama-though it shares common characteristics with these arts. The storyteller looks into the eyes

of the audience and together they compose the tale. The storyteller begins to see and re-

create, through voice and gesture, a series of mental images; the audience, from the firstmoment of listening, squints, stares, smiles, leans forward or falls asleep, letting the tellerknow whether to slow down, speed up, elaborate, or just finish. Each listener, as well as

each teller, actually composes a unique set of story images derived from meanings

associated with words, gestures, and sounds. The experience can be profound, exercisingthe thinking and touching emotions of both teller and listener. The National Council ofTeachers of English in support of storytelling in the academic classroom

To be a person is to have a story to tell. Isak Dinesen

We are lonesome animals. We spend all of our life trying to be less lonesome. One of our

ancient methods is to tell a story begging the listener to say-and to feel-Yes, that is the

way it is, or at least that is the way I feel it. Youre not as alone as you thought. JohnSteinbeck

The answer is always in the entire story, not a piece of it. Jim Harrison


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Stories have power. They delight, enchant, touch, teach, recall, inspire, motivate, challenge.

They help us understand. They imprint a picture on our minds. Consequently, stories oftenpack more punch than sermons. Want to make a point or raise an issue? Tell a story. Jesusdid it. He called his stories parables. Janet Litherland

The master gave his teaching in parables and stories, which his disciples listened to with

pleasure-and occasional frustration, for they longed for something deeper.

The master was unmoved. To all their objections he would say, You have yet to understand

that the shortest distance between a human being and Truth is a story. Anthony de Mello

The Storytellers Creed I believe that imagination is stronger than knowledge, That myth is

more potent than history, That dreams are more powerful than facts, That hope alwaystriumphs over experience, That laughter is the only cure for grief, And I believe that love isstronger than death. Robert Fulghum

Sacred stories are those of transformation, they are stories that draw us closer to what I call

the Lord Within The Heart, and they help us to see our connection to all things. Theres a

saying in the Jewish tradition that the shortest distance between [a hu]man and God isthrough a story. So if storytelling is a journey, sacred storytelling is a pilgrimageapilgrimage to a place called Hope. Andy Fraenkel

There is no agony like bearing an untold story inside of you. Maya Angelou

A story is told as much by silence as by speech. Susan Griffin

Stories are the creative conversion of life itself into a more powerful, clearer, moremeaningful experience. They are the currency of human contact. Robert McKee

Its not the college degree that makes a writer. Thegreat thing is to have a story to tell.

Polly Adler

A song aint nothin in the world but a story just wrote with music to it. Hank Williams, Sr.

Stories set the inner life into motion, and this is particularly important where the inner life isfrightened, wedged, or cornered. Story greases the hoists and pulleys, it causes adrenalineto surge, shows us the way out, down, or up, and for our trouble, cuts for us fine wide doors

in previously blank walls, openings that lead to the dreamland, that lead to love andlearning, that lead us back to our own real lives as knowing wildish women. ClarissaPinkola Estes

It is not the voice that commands the story: it is the ear. Italo Calvino

I come from a long line of tellers: mesemondok, old Hungarian women who tell while sittingon wooden chairs with their plastic pocketbooks on their laps, their knees apart, their skirts

touching the ground... and cuentistas, old Latina women who stand, robust of breast, hips

wide, and cry out the story ranchera style. Both clans storytell in the plain voice of womenwho have lived blood and babies, bread and bones. For them, story is a medicine whichstrengthens and arights the individual and the community. Clarissa Pinkola Estes


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People have forgotten how to tell a story. Stories dont have a middle or an end anymore.

They usually have a beginning that never stops beginning. Steven Spielberg

The story is always better than your ability to write it. My belief about this is that if you everget to the point that you think youve done a story justice, youre in the wrong business. Robin McKinley

Rule one of reading other peoples stories is that whenever you say well thats notconvincing the author tells you thats the bit that wasnt made up. This is because real life is

under no obligation to be convincing. Neil Gaiman

Why was Solomon recognized as the wisest man in the world? Because he knew more

stories (proverbs) than anyone else. Scratch the surface in a typical boardroom and were alljust cavemen with briefcases, hungry for a wise person to tell us stories. Alan Kay, vicepresident at Walt Disney

We want a story that starts out with an earthquake and works its way up to a climax.

Samuel Goldwyn

People are hungry for stories. Its part of our very being. Storytelling isa form of history, ofimmortality too. It goes from one generation to another. Studs Terkel

Writing a story or a novel is one way of discovering sequence in experience, of stumblingupon cause and effect in the happenings of a writers own life. Eudora Welty

Increasingly, I realized that I could not merely tell his story. Rather, I would have to tell mystory about him. Ronald Steel

The trouble with telling a good story is that it invariably reminds the other fellow of a dullone. Sid Caesar

Stories are the single most powerful weapon in a leaders arsenal. Howard Gardner,Harvard University

The story was the bushmans most sacred possession. These people knew what we do not;that without a story you have not got a nation, or culture, or civilization. Without a story ofyour own, you havent got a life of your own. Laurens Van der Post

People did not wait until there was writing before they told stories and sang songs. AlbertBates Lord

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Quotes About Story and Storytelling