“The writer doesn’t push story into us, he withholds information in order that we draw his story out of ourselves.”

“It's like everyone tells a story about themselves inside their own head. Always. All the time. That story makes you what you are. We build ourselves out of that story.”

Patrick Rothfuss book The Name of the Wind

“Who are we but the stories we tell ourselves, about ourselves, and believe?”

Scott Turow book Ordinary Heroes

“we become the stories we tell ourselves”

Michael Cunningham book A Home at the End of the World

“… What happens is of little significance compared with the stories we tell ourselves about what happens. Events matter little, only stories of events affect us.”

Rabih Alameddine book The Hakawati

“A well-thought-out story doesn’t need to resemble real life. Life itself tries with all its might to resemble a well-crafted story.”

Isaac Babel (1894–1940) Russian language journalist, playwright, literary translator, and short story writer

“Something we were withholding made us weak, until we found it was ourselves.”

Robert Frost (1874–1963) American poet

“Something we were withholding made us weak Until we found it was ourselves.”

Marilyn Ferguson (1938–2008) American writer

“No story has power, nor will it last, unless we feel in ourselves that it is true and true of us.”

John Steinbeck book East of Eden

“Borges said there are only four stories to tell: a love story between two people, a love story between three people, the struggle for power and the voyage. All of us writers rewrite these same stories ad infinitum.”

Paulo Coelho (1947) Brazilian lyricist and novelist