“All the best stories in the world are but one story in reality — the story of an escape. It is the only thing which interests us all and at all times — how to escape.”

“And lastly there is the oldest and deepest desire, the Great Escape: the Escape from Death. Fairy-stories provide many examples and modes of this … Fairy-stories are made by men not by fairies. The Human-stories of the elves are doubtless full of the Escape from Deathlessness.”

“the story of any one of us is in some measure the story of us all”

“Stories are the most important thing in the world. Without stories, we wouldn't be human beings at all.”

“Tell me a story, Pew.
What kind of story, child?
A story with a happy ending.
There's no such thing in all the world.
As a happy ending?
As an ending.”

“There was a point to this story, but it has temporarily escaped the chronicler's mind.”

“Each affects the other and the other affects the next, and the world is full of stories, but the stories are all one.”

“The story of one person is the story of all of humanity.”

“To read fiction means to play a game by which we give sense to the immensity of things that happened, are happening, or will happen in the actual world. By reading narrative, we escape the anxiety that attacks us when we try to say something true about the world. This is the consoling function of narrative — the reason people tell stories, and have told stories from the beginning of time.”

“There's always a story. It's all stories, really. The sun coming up every day is a story. Everything's got a story in it. Change the story, change the world.”