1,265 Quotes About Storytelling

Write where you want to go.

Promise me you will pass on the story of the first woman -- in whatever form you wish. It was given to me by women in captivity. They lived an awful state of migration, my grandmothers. Telling origin stories was their act of resistance. I only added on a bit here and a bit there. Stories are critical, Kirabo,' she added thoughtfully. 'The minute we fall silent, someone will fill the silence for us.

Most of the basic material a writer works with is acquired before the age of fifteen.

Telling the story, acknowledging what has happened and how you feel, is often a necessary part of forgiveness.

Autobiographical writing stands as lasting memorial for enduring the travails of an earthly life. Writing is an apt technique to score our storyline into the annuals of time. To endure a mortal life is merely a transitory experience whereas writing about how one lived is an internalized exposition of what it means to be human. Writing is an external exhibition injecting the author into the world’s consciousness.

All stories have a curious and even dangerous power. They are manifestations of truth -- yours and mine. And truth is all at once the most wonderful yet terrifying thing in the world, which makes it nearly impossible to handle. It is such a great responsibility that it's best not to tell a story at all unless you know you can do it right. You must be very careful, or without knowing it you can change the world.

I tell the story to you now, but in each telling the story itself changes a little, changes direction, and that in turn changes you and me. So be very careful not only in how you repeat it but in how you remember it, goslings. More often than you realize it, the world is shaped by two things -- stories told and the memories they leave behind.

Oh, how scary and wonderful it is that words can change our lives simply by being next to each other.

The artist lives to have stories to tell and to learn to tell them well.