Quotes on Storytelling

People have forgotten how to tell a story.

Stories are attempts to share our values and beliefs. Storytelling is worthwhile when it tells what we stand for.

There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.

We are the storytelling animal.

It has been said that next to hunger and thirst, our most basic human need is for storytelling.

The greatest art in the world is the art of storytelling.

The fact of storytelling hints at a fundamental human unease, hints at human imperfection. Where there is perfection there is no story to tell.

Fantasy is, at its best, the purest access to storytelling that we have. It universalizes a tale, it evokes wonder and timeless narrative power, it touches upon inner journeys, it illuminates our collective and individual pasts, throws a focus beam on the present day, and presages the dangers and promises of the future.

As long as we are engaged in storytelling that moves the culture forward, it doesn't matter what format it is.

I wouldn't trade anything for my story now.

If you're going to have a story, have a big story, or none at all.

If history were taught in the form of stories, it would never be forgotten.

I could a tale unfold whose lightest word Would harrow up thy soul, freeze thy young blood, Make thy two eyes like stars start from their spheres, Thy knotted and combined locks to part, And each particular hair to stand on end Like quills upon the fretful porpentine. But this eternal blazon must not be To ears of flesh and blood. List, list, O list!

The purpose of a storyteller is not to tell you how to think, but to give you questions to think upon.

We are lonesome animals. We spend all 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’s the way it is, or at least that’s the way I feel it. You’re not as alone as you thought."

If I look at the mass I will never act.

Start writing, no matter what. The water does not flow until the faucet is turned on

Artists use lies to tell the truth. Yes, I created a lie. But because you believed it, you found something true about yourself.

All I need is a sheet of paper and something to write with, and then I can turn the world upside down.

Long before I wrote stories, I listened for stories. Listening for them is something more acute than listening to them. I suppose it’s an early form of participation in what goes on. Listening children know stories are there. When their elders sit and begin, children are just waiting and hoping for one to come out, like a mouse from its hole.

My aim is to put down on paper what I see and what I feel in the best and simplest way.