Good Storytelling Quotes

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

  Rudyard Kipling

  Writing, History, Stories

  25 Copy quote

• A story has no beginning or end: arbitrarily one chooses that moment of experience from which to look back or from which to look ahead.

  Graham Greene

  Looks, Stories, Moments

  Graham Greene (1974). “The end of the affair”, Vintage

  50 Copy quote

  Show source

• We tell ourselves stories in order to live.

  Joan Didion

  Writing, Order, Stories

  1979 The White Album,'The White Album, 1'.

  22 Copy quote

  Show source

• A good story cannot be devised; it has to be distilled.

  Raymond Chandler

  Writing, Stories, Storytelling

  Raymond Chandler, Dorothy Gardiner, Kathrine Sorley Walker (1977). “Raymond Chandler Speaking”, p.75, Univ of California Press

  46 Copy quote

  Show source

• There are books full of great writing that don't have very good stories. Read sometimes for the story... don't be like the book-snobs who won't do that. Read sometimes for the words--the language. Don't be like the play-it-safers who won't do that. But when you find a book that has both a good story and good words, treasure that book.

  Stephen King

  Book, Writing, Play

  Stephen King (2017). “Hearts in Atlantis”, p.25, Simon and Schuster

  5 Copy quote

  Show source

• To me good storytelling is about journeys. It's about people's journeys, people's discoveries and how they deal with those discoveries; circumstances that put people in different situations.

  Scott Cohen

  Journey, Discovery, People

  Source: twoaspirinsandacomedy.com

  3 Copy quote

  Show source

• Good storytelling is humanity's great connector, and it just might keep the world from eating itself.

  James Genn

  Humanity, World, Might

  44 Copy quote

• My brand is good storytelling. I really want [my company] Hillman Grad Productions to be associated with great stories, interesting characters; things that are three-dimensional and feel honest.

  Lena Waithe

  Character, Interesting, Want

  Source: blogs.indiewire.com

  10 Copy quote

  Show source

• Im not really devoted or specified towards any specific genre at all. I really like it all. Theres good storytelling in all the genres, you know. I just want to tell good stories and do good work.

  Angela Bettis

  Want, Stories, Storytelling

  4 Copy quote

• The L Word reaffirmed that good storytelling has a way of creating community. Fans everywhere have been connecting with each other online, in public and at home-viewing parties.

  Jennifer Beals

  Party, Home, Creating

  Speech at 19th Annual GLAAD Media Awards, San Francisco, California, May 10, 2008.

  3 Copy quote

  Show source

• I think good storytelling continues to teach you how it unfolds. And so I don't think that film and stage are mutually exclusive at all. It's just that you're always in a wide shot.

  Terry Kinney

  Thinking, Film, Storytelling

  Source: www.avclub.com

  3 Copy quote

  Show source

• The kind of people that love 'The Rocketeer' are the kind of people that love good storytelling and innocence and a better world, so to speak, so they're almost always nice people to bump into.

  Billy Campbell

  Nice, People, Bumps

  "Billy Campbell Talks THE ROCKETEER 20th Anniversary Blu-ray and Season Finale of THE KILLING". Interview with Christina Radish, collider.com. December 13, 2011.

  3 Copy quote

  Show source

• An author must learn the principles of good storytelling only in order to write better from the heart.

  Uri Shulevitz

  Writing, Heart, Order

  Uri Shulevitz (1997). “Writing with Pictures: How to Write and Illustrate Children's Books”

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Good storytelling is harder than it sounds, but the easy part is that everyone has the ability to do it. ...Tap into it.

  Peter Guber

  Positivity, Sound, Easy

  FaceBook post by Peter Guber from Jun 12, 2011

  16 Copy quote

  Show source

• While I don't like violent programs per se, I do like good storytelling, which made me a fan of shows like Breaking Bad and American Horror Story.

  Hank Stuever

  Horror Stories, Fans, American Horror Story

  Source: live.washingtonpost.com

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• The teacher always used me as an example to the class of good English and good storytelling because we all had to write the same stories. But she used to make me go out front - which I hated - and read my story to the class and I would get huge applause. Not because of who I was but because they truly enjoyed the stories I wrote.

  Michael Jackson

  Teacher, Writing, Class

  "Michael Jackson: 'I am scared of my father'". Interview with Shmuley Boteach, www.nbcnews.com.

  9 Copy quote

  Show source

• I think it's always a challenge when you're telling a story that people know. But hopefully, good storytelling - well, there's two things. One is, you definitely have to have surprises and changes so that people are - you keep them interested, you take them down roads that they didn't expect and give them suspense and surprise.

  Kimberly Peirce

  Thinking, Two, People

  Source: collider.com

  5 Copy quote

  Show source

• If you do really good storytelling, things that people also might anticipate and that they might have seen before - there's a reason we go back to stories that we love - so, even if there is a familiarity, if you can do it a different way and hopefully do it well enough, you actually feel the satisfaction of that anticipation given back to you.

  Kimberly Peirce

  People, Different, Stories

  Source: collider.com

  3 Copy quote

  Show source

• Good storytelling doesn't have to be in the form of the classics. It doesn't have to be revered by everybody. In fact, to me, the best storytelling is not universally loved by every single person. I think you can water down the ethicacy of the work, itself.

  Bryan Cranston

  Thinking, Water, Facts

  Source: collider.com

  16 Copy quote

  Show source

• My theory for nonfiction is that nobody can be free of some kind of conceptions about whatever story they're writing. But if you can find a way to build those into the story, then the story becomes a process of deconstructing and heightening and sometimes changing those notions and that makes dramatic tension. The initial statement of your position, and then letting reality act on you to change it, is pretty good storytelling.

  George Saunders

  Writing, Reality, Stories

  Source: therumpus.net

  3 Copy quote

  Show source

• Good storytelling for me is not so much technical expertise, which I know is applauded often; it's actually freshness of approach. It does mean you sometimes stumble and fall and make a horrible mess of things in seeking that freshness, but you should always keep trying to do that.

  Danny Boyle

  Fall, Mean, Trying

  Interview with Tasha Robinson, www.avclub.com. November 26, 2008.

  12 Copy quote

  Show source

• Your first film is always your best film, in a way. There's something about your first film that you never ever get back to, but you should always try. It's that slight sense of not knowing what you're doing, because the technical skills you learn - especially if you have a film that works, that has some kind of success - are beguiling. The temptation is to use them again, and they're not necessarily good storytelling techniques.

  Danny Boyle

  Skills, Knowing, Temptation

  Interview with Tasha Robinson, film.avclub.com. November 26, 2008.

  3 Copy quote

  Show source

• I look for really great characters. I say great because as long as they're really good, there's something you can do. And really good storytelling. And when people ask me what the story is, I say it's really several stories really. They're intermeshed.

  Matt Dillon

  Character, Long, People

  "Matt Dillon and Thandie Newton talk Crash". MovieWeb Interview, movieweb.com. May 5, 2005.

  3 Copy quote

  Show source

• If I really knew how to do good storytelling, I would be a writer. Mystery is not a huge part of it. ... It's tension, it's relationships. I think it's a struggle.

  Scott Cohen

  Struggle, Thinking, Would Be

  Source: twoaspirinsandacomedy.com

  3 Copy quote

  Show source

• There's no harmony in most people in a way, and I'm attracted to it, and I think it makes for good storytelling.

  Greg Kinnear

  Thinking, People, Way

  "Greg Kinnear and an obsessive inventor". Interview with Jacque Wilson, www.cnn.com. September 24, 2008.

  3 Copy quote

  Show source