Stories Quotes

I really do feel like I was born to write and tell stories.

~ Christopher Barzak

Some of the best stories start out with a person who absolutely does not want anything to do with an adventure.

~ Josh Rose

[W]e wouldn't want to read a book about a perfect character who never struggles with character flaws, a difficult past, or interpersonal conflict. Writers can powerfully connect with readers when they venture to these thin places of pain and brokenness because readers can see themselves in the pain and want to journey from pain and struggle toward redemption or some kind of resolution.

~ Ed Cyzewski

Since the dawn of humanity, stories have allowed each of us to be many.

~ Neil Gaiman

These days, we've got booksellers in cities, in deserts, and in the middle of a rain forest; we've got travelling bookshops, and bookshops underground. We've got bookshops in barns, in caravans and in converted Victorian railway stations. We've even got booksellers selling books in the middle of a war. Are bookshops still relevant? They certainly are.All bookshops are full of stories, and stories want to be heard.

~ Jen Campbell

Supposing an emperor was persuaded to wear a new suit of clothes whose material was so fine that, to the common eye, the clothes weren't there. And suppose a little boy pointed out this fact in a loud, clear voice...Then you have The Story of the Emperor Who Had No Clothes.But if you knew a bit more, it would be The Story of the Boy Who Got a Well-Deserved Thrashing from His Dad for Being Rude to Royalty, and Was Locked Up.Or The Story of the Whole Crowd Who Were Rounded Up by the Guards and Told 'This Didn't Happen, OK? Does Anyone Want to Argue?'Or it could be a story of how a whole kingdom suddenly saw the benefit of the 'new clothes', and developed an enthusiasm for healthy sports in a lively and refreshing atmosphere which got many new adherents every year, and led to a recession caused by the collapse of the conventional clothing industry.It could even be a story about The Great Pneumonia Epidemic of '09.It all depends on how much you know.

~ Terry Pratchett

In the history of the world, a whole story has never been told.

~ Meghan Daum

We read about you to be with you, to walk in someone else's shoes, to experience another life. Some of those lives are hard, and others are easy, but we're with you every step of the way. We read about people in impossible situations because we're dealing with horrible things ourselves, in our lives. And you going through your story helps us with ours, no matter how yours ends.

~ James Riley

History is the stories we tell about the past.

~ Thomas King

There is another version of the tale. That is the tale the women tell each other, in their private language that the men-children are not taught, and that the old men are too wise to learn. And in that version of the tale perhaps things happened differently. But then, that is a women's tale, and it is never told to men.

~ Neil Gaiman

To call up modern versions of the old stories, one has to go forth and live life. As a result then, one will have the challenge of not only living the story, taking it all in, but also interpreting it in whatever ways are useful. So too, one will reap the reward of telling all about it afterward. One's interest in the world, and in having experiences, is really an interest in hearing, having, living one more story, and then one more, then one more story, till one cannot live them out loud any longer. Perhaps it should be said that the drive to live out stories is as deep in the psyche, when awakened, as it is compelling to the psyche to listen to stories and learn from them. Clarissa Pinkola Estes, Ph.D. in Introduction to the 2004 edition of The hero with a thousand faces (J.Campbell)

~ Joseph Campbell

A story is inside of us all. Each word and sentence is alive and we grace the pages to keep it from dying.

~ Aisha Mirza

The stories we pretend do not exist, are the stories that will haunt us till the end.

~ Srividya Srinivasan

Stories carry things. A lesson or moral. Information or a take-home message.

~ Jonah Berger

It’s so the stories go that the Ginen tell. If you find a beautiful fairmaid swimming in the river, her fish tail flashing; if you follow her down into her water home with her, she will make the water like air so you can breathe. But then she’ll ask you, playful, You eat salt, or you eat fresh? And if you say salt, she will let you go back home, but if you say fresh …“It’s my business,” he said. Pouted. Looked at the ground.If you only eat unsalted food, fresh food, we believe you make Lasirèn vexed, for salt is the creatures of the sea, and good for the Ginen to eat, but fresh—fresh is the flesh of Lasirèn, and if you eat that, it’s pride. You’re trying to make yourself as one of the lwas. Makandal never eats salt. He, a living man, giving himself powers like a lwa. That’s why he couldn’t hear the voice of the lwas.

~ Nalo Hopkinson

Without your stories, without your heroes and their awesome powers, how could you explain this, this here, this incomprehensible real that ever refuses to embrace any rule, any cliché besides the intransigent, pathetic truth that we all end, that no one comes back.

~ Tom King

If our story isn’t serving us, negatively impacts our families, our communities, or our organizations, we might just have to find a way to “StoryJack” the story, transforming it, and creating a new story that we resonate with so that we can “Jack Into” a better version or experience the story – and our life - in a new way.

~ Lyssa Danehy Dehart

I have wandered many roads that I have never traveled; touched many things that my eyes have never seen. It is through stories that life is made, and through stories that life is saved.

~ James Avery Fuchs

I know that I too could try a story out, rebuild mine, make it live again several minutes before the full of the day, the sun, the city. But I haven't the strength, stupidly. I rise and carry on. One more time.

~ Danielle Collobert

Readers can surprise you. Many times, they notice layers in your stories, that even you were not aware of while writing.

~ Shon Mehta

The next best thing to christmas is...... a story worth reading.

~ Nadun Lokuliyanage

But those are just words, and words are just stories, and eventually, always, stories come to an end.

~ Lauren Oliver

Stories are light.

~ Kate Dicamillo

The single thing all women need in the world is inspiration, and inspiration comes from storytelling.

~ Zainab Salbi

Stories come alive in the telling. (…)They lay dormant, hoping for the chance to emerge. Once someone started to read them, they could begin to change. They could take root in the imagination and transform the reader. Stories wanted to be read.

~ John Connolly

A story can fly like a bee, so straight and swift you catch only the hum of its passing. Or move so slowly it seems motionless, curled in upon itself like a snake in the sun. It can vanish like smoke before the wind. Linger like perfume in the nose. Change with every telling, yet always remain the same.

~ Cameron Dokey

Ah—now you think I have been lying to you, that this is only a story. It has a king in it. And while a story with Death might be true, a story with a king in it is always a fairy tale. But remember, this comes from a time when kings were as common as corn. Plant a field and you got corn. Plant a kingdom and you got a king. It is that simple.

~ Jane Yolen

The problem with secrets is that they don't want to stay that way. They say information wants to be free. And maybe that's the case. But what I do know is that every story wants to be told. You can bury them as deep as you want. You can hide them. You can toss them into the darkest places you can imagine, but sooner or later... They always come back.

~ Justin Jordan

Stories are one of the most powerful ways in which we communicate ideas among ourselves. They are the stuff that brings us together, the things we celebrate, the things we share with one another.

~ Robert Stephen Parry

There are always two sides to a story.

~ Una Mccormack

You are the stories you tell, whatever their basis in fact or experience. It’s who you are.

~ Richard House

Stories are how we connect. Evolution isn’t seriously about thumbs but about how we use language – that’s what raises us above dumb animals, right? Language?

~ Richard House

Telling stories to make himself into something that he isn’t. We all do it. We all tell stories to make ourselves look better.

~ Richard House

Some people believe in telling stories. Some believe in doing things about which stories will be told in times to come.

~ Sharad Vivek Sagar

Write and your experiences with others. Never underestimate your writings. It can bring hope and inspiration to many people.

~ Lailah Gifty Akita

o There’s no way to really preserve a person when they’ve gone and that’s because whatever you write down it’s not the truth, it’s just a story. Stories are all we’re ever left with in our head or on paper: clever narratives put together from selected facts, legends, well edited tall tales with us in the starring roles.

~ Steven Hall

Even if you're in the thick of revising another work, write something new. Something small. It's important to keep telling yourself stories.

~ Don Roff

Moral stories are always imaginary , but these stories induce real moral values in a human society .

~ Usama Gondal

There is no ‘what if’. Only in stories.

~ Claire Robertson

Listen, and you will realize that we are made not from cells or from atoms. We are made from stories.

~ Mia Couto