“It is the story-teller's task to elicit sympathy and a measure of understanding for those who lie outside the boundaries of State approval.”

“There are kinds of action, for good or ill, that lie so far outside the boundaries of normal behavior that they force us, in acknowledging that they have occurred, to restructure our own understanding of reality. We have to make room for them.”

“Those who truly understand their faiths understand the stories are metaphorical.”

“The task of leadership is not to put greatness into humanity, but to elicit it, for the greatness is already there.”

“The story of my family… changes with the teller.”

“Madame, all stories, if continued far enough, end in death, and he is no true-story teller who would keep that from you.”

“I am the teller of the tale, not the creator of the story.”

“A woman who doesn't lie is a woman without imagination and without sympathy.”

“Approval is overrated. Approval and disapproval alike satisfy those who deliver it more than those who receive it.”

“A good writer is basically a story teller, not a scholar or a redeemer of mankind.”