“People who wade into discomfort and vulnerability and tell the truth about their stories are the real badasses.”

Source: Killing Yourself to Live: 85% of a True Story

Source: His Dark Materials, The Amber Spyglass (2000), Ch. 32 : Morning
Context: One of the ghosts — an old woman — beckoned, urging her to come close.
Then she spoke, and Mary heard her say:
"Tell them stories. They need the truth. You must tell them true stories, and everything will be well, just tell them stories."
That was all, and then she was gone. It was one of those moments when we suddenly recall a dream that we’ve unaccountably forgotten, and back in a flood comes all the emotion we felt in our sleep. It was the dream she’d tried to describe to Atal, the night picture; but as Mary tried to find it again, it dissolved and drifted apart, just as these presences did in the open air. The dream was gone.
All that was left was the sweetness of that feeling, and the injunction to tell them stories.

"The Leaning Tower", lecture delivered to the Workers' Educational Association, Brighton (May 1940)
The Moment and Other Essays (1948)

Source: Ordinary Heroes

Travis Parker, Proloque, p. 1
Source: 2000s, The Choice (2007)

Variant: Know something, sugar? Stories only happen to people who can tell them.

Introduction
1920s, An Autobiography (1927)

Source: Safe Haven