Storyteller Quotes

• To poison a nation, poison its stories. A demoralised nation tells demoralised stories to itself. Beware of the storytellers who are not fully conscious of the importance of their gifts, and who are irresponsible in the application of their art: they

  Ben Okri

  Art, Poison, Stories

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• When the storyteller tells the truth, she reminds us that human beings are more alike than unalike... A story is what it's like to be a human being-to be knocked down and to miraculously arise. Each one of us has arisen, awakened. We do rise.

  Maya Angelou

  Writing, Stories, Down And

  15 Copy quote

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

  Patti Davis

  Teacher, Night, Light

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• The planet does not need more successful people. The planet desperately needs more peacemakers, healers, restorers, storytellers, and lovers of all kinds.

  Dalai Lama

  Successful, People, Doe

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• The human species thinks in metaphors and learns through stories.

  Mary Catherine Bateson

  Inspirational, Inspiring, Thinking

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

  Robert McKee

  Meaningful, Powerful, Creative

  26 Copy quote

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

  Rudyard Kipling

  Writing, History, Stories

  25 Copy quote

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

  Brandon Sanderson

  Thinking, Giving, Purpose

  Brandon Sanderson (2017). “Brandon Sanderson's Fantasy Firsts: (The Way of Kings, Mistborn: The Final Empire, Rithmatist, Alcatraz vs. The Evil Librarians)”, p.1775, Macmillan

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• Those who do not have power over the story that dominates their lives, power to retell it, to rethink it, deconstruct it, joke about it, and change it as times change, truly are powerless, because they cannot think new thoughts.

  Salman Rushdie

  Thinking, Stories, Storytelling

  12 Copy quote

• The universe is made of stories, not of atoms.

  Muriel Rukeyser

  Peace, Science, Technology

  Muriel Rukeyser (1994). “Out of Silence: Selected Poems”, p.135, Northwestern University Press

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• Traveling - it leaves you speechless, then turns you into a storyteller.

  Ibn Battuta

  Inspirational, Travel, Adventurous

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• The destiny of the world is determined less by the battles that are lost and won than by the stories it loves and believes in.

  Harold Clarke Goddard

  Believe, Destiny, Battle

  "The Meaning of Shakespeare". Book by Harold Clarke Goddard, 1951.

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• People are hungry for stories. It's part of our very being.

  Studs Terkel

  People, Stories, Hungry

  18 Copy quote

• Man is eminently a storyteller. His search for a purpose, a cause, an ideal, a mission and the like is largely a search for a plot and a pattern in the development of his life story - a story that is basically without meaning or pattern.

  Eric Hoffer

  Men, Patterns, Causes

  Eric Hoffer (1996). “The Passionate State of Mind”

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• Wherever a story comes from, whether it is a familiar myth or a private memory, the retelling exemplifies the making of a connection from one pattern to another: a potential translation 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 phrase in the newspaper, the endearing or infuriating game of a toddler, the misunderstanding at the office. Our species thinks in metaphors and learns through stories.

  Mary Catherine Bateson

  Memories, Thinking, Games

  19 Copy quote

• 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."

  John Steinbeck

  Loneliness, Animal, Trying

  "In Awe of Words". The Exonian, 75th anniversary edition, Exeter University, 1930.

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• Sometimes a person needs a story more than food to stay alive.

  Barry Lopez

  Inspire, Needs, Stories

  FaceBook post by Barry Lopez from Aug 10, 2010

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• I'm an assistant storyteller. It's like being a waiter or a gas-station attendant, but I'm waiting on six million people a week, if I'm lucky.

  Jane Fonda

  People, Waiting, Gas Stations

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• There is a certain embarrassment about being a storyteller in these times when stories are considered not quite as satisfying as statements and statements not quite as satisfying as statistics; but in the long run, a people is known, not by its statements or its statistics, but by the stories it tells.

  Flannery O'Connor

  Running, Long, People

  Flannery O'Connor (1969). “Mystery and Manners: Occasional Prose”, p.192, Macmillan

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• Death is the sanction of everything that the storyteller can tell. He has borrowed his authority from death.

  Walter Benjamin

  Death, Stories, Storytelling

  "Illuminations".

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

  Robert McKee

  Leadership, Morning, Powerful

  Biography/Personal Quotes, www.imdb.com.

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• There have been great societies that did not use the wheel, but there have been no societies that did not tell stories.

  Ursula K. Le Guin

  Writing, Library, Stories

  Ursula K. Le Guin, Susan Wood (1980). “The Language of the Night: Essays on Fantasy and Science Fiction”, p.31, Ultramarine Publishing

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• I like explaining things, and I believe that you can do very high-level explanation on basic cable news provided you are willing to work hard enough to be a good storyteller.

  Rachel Maddow

  Believe, Hard Work, News

  Interview with Grace Dunham, www.yahoo.com. April 21, 2016.

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• To share our stories is not only a worthwhile endeavor for the storyteller, but for those who hear our stories and feel less alone because of it.

  Joyce Maynard

  Stories, Share, Worthwhile

  11 Copy quote

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

  Joseph Campbell

  Inspirational, Inspiring, Stories

  10 Copy quote