Storyteller Quotes - Page 2

• 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

  91 Copy quote

  Show source

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

  Robert McKee

  Leadership, Morning, Powerful

  Biography/Personal Quotes, www.imdb.com.

  78 Copy quote

  Show source

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

  Walter Benjamin

  Death, Stories, Storytelling

  "Illuminations".

  15 Copy quote

  Show source

• 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

  13 Copy quote

• 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

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• 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

  28 Copy quote

  Show source

• 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.

  15 Copy quote

  Show source

• 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

  20 Copy quote

• 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

  12 Copy quote

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

  Joseph Campbell

  Inspirational, Inspiring, Stories

  12 Copy quote

• 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.

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• Stories live forever. Storytellers don't.

  Patricia Stephens Due

  Forever, Stories, Live Forever

  6 Copy quote

• Where do storytellers find the wisdom to discover their own stories? From no place more mysterious than their own hearts.

  Marion Dane Bauer

  Heart, Stories, Mysterious

  Marion Dane Bauer (1992). “What's Your Story?: A Young Person's Guide to Writing Fiction”, p.10, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Sad words are just another beauty. A sad story means, this storyteller is alive

  Chris Cleave

  Mean, Stories, Alive

  Chris Cleave (2012). “Chris Cleave Ebook Boxed Set: Little Bee, Incendiary, Gold”, p.298, Simon and Schuster

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• A story can take you through a whole process of searching, seeking, confronting, through conflicts, and then to a resolution. As the storyteller and the listener, we go through a story together.

  Maxine Hong Kingston

  Together, Stories, Conflict

  46 Copy quote

• I'll tell you a secret. Old storytellers never die. They disappear into their own story.

  Vera Nazarian

  Secret, Stories, Disappear

  5 Copy quote

• …Even the idea of a city never entered his mind. It was as if he had walked under the millimeter of haze just above the inked fibers of a map, that pure zone between land and chart, between distances and legends, between nature and storyteller. The place they had chosen to come to, to be their best selves, to be unconscious of ancestry. Here, apart from the sun compass and the odometer mileage, and the book, he was alone, his own invention. He knew during these times how the mirage worked, the fata morgana, for he was within it.

  Michael Ondaatje

  Distance, Book, Land

  6 Copy quote

• I don't view myself as a political leftie. I view myself as a storyteller who is fair to both sides.

  Tim Robbins

  Views, Two Sides, Political

  7 Copy quote

• There is something in us, as storytellers and as listeners to stories, that demands the redemptive act, that demands that what falls at least be offered the chance to be restored. The reader of today looks for this motion, and rightly so, but what he has forgotten is the cost of it. His sense of evil is diluted or lacking altogether, and so he has forgotten the price of restoration. When he reads a novel, he wants either his sense tormented or his spirits raised. He wants to be transported, instantly, either to mock damnation or a mock innocence.

  Flannery O'Connor

  Fall, Evil, Damnation

  5 Copy quote

• I want to be seen as a good storyteller. I'm a manipulator as well.

  Wilbur Smith

  Want, Wells, Manipulator

  "Connect the World" with Becky Anderson, edition.cnn.com. January 24, 2013.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Directing a film was something I was yearning to do. I always wanted to see if I had the capacity to be a good storyteller.

  Kevin Spacey

  Film, Capacity, Yearning

  "New Again: Kevin Spacey". Interview with Mare Winningham, www.interviewmagazine.com. July 27, 2016.

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• Old stories have a habit of being told and retold and changed. Each subsequent storyteller puts his or her mark upon it. Whatever truth the story once had is buried in bias and embellishment. The reasons do not matter as much as the story itself.

  Erin Morgenstern

  Stories, Matter, Reason

  Erin Morgenstern (2016). “The Night Circus”, p.352, Random House

  16 Copy quote

  Show source

• There's a virtue,' Felix said, 'to listening to a reluctant storyteller. You know that he is in fact diving deep for the salvageable truth.

  Anne Rice

  Diving Deep, Listening, Facts

  Anne Rice (2013). “The Wolf Gift”, p.544, Random House

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• For this too I learned, that a storyteller's tale may end, but history goes on always. These events, so distant in legend, play a part in shaping the very events we witness about us, each and every day.

  Jacqueline Carey

  Play, Events, Goes On

  Jacqueline Carey (2002). “Kushiel's Dart”, p.60, Macmillan

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• It is an ancient need to be told stories. But the story needs a great storyteller. Thanks for all of it, Jo.

  Alan Rickman

  Needs, Stories, Thanks

  "Alan Rickman says goodbye to 'Harry Potter' in a published letter to J.K. Rowling, www.mtv.com. May 26, 2011.

  5 Copy quote

  Show source