Quotes about story page 5
Brené Brown (1965) US writer and professor
Source: Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead
“So maybe it wasn't the fairy tale. But those stories weren't real anyway. Mine were.”
Sarah Dessen book Along for the Ride
Source: Along for the Ride
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (1797–1851) English novelist, short story writer, dramatist, essayist, biographer, and travel writer
Introduction http://www.rc.umd.edu/editions/frankenstein/1831v1/intro.html to the 1831 edition of Frankenstein
“The problem I have with haters is that they see my glory, but they don't know my story…”
Maya Angelou (1928–2014) American author and poet
“For our stories are not yet finished, and perhaps will never be.”
Piers Anthony (1934) English-American writer in the science fiction and fantasy genres
Source: Crewel Lye
“Fear, to a great extent, is born of a story we tell ourselves…”
Cheryl Strayed book Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail
Source: Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail
“A story lives transformed by a gesture not made or a word not spoken”
Ian McEwan book On Chesil Beach
Source: On Chesil Beach
“Sometimes a person needs a story more than food to stay alive.”
Barry Lopez (1945) American writer
“Every word a woman writes changes the story of the world, revises the official version.”
Carolyn See (1934–2016) American writer
Mitch Albom book The Five People You Meet in Heaven
Source: The Five People You Meet in Heaven (2003)
Context: Parents rarely let go of their children, so children let go of them. They move on. They move away. The moments that used to define them - a mother's approval, a father's nod - are covered by moments of their own accomplishments. It is not until much later, as the skin sags and the heart weakens, that children understand; their stories, and all their accomplishments, sit atop the stories of their mothers and fathers, stones upon stones, beneath the waters of their lives.
“Of course it's the same old story. Truth usually is the same old story.”
Margaret Thatcher (1925–2013) British stateswoman and politician
“Without conflict there is no plot, without hope there is no story”
Cassandra Clare (1973) American author
“Write a short story every week. It's not possible to write 52 bad short stories in a row.”
Ray Bradbury (1920–2012) American writer
Sonya Hartnett (1968) Australian writer
Source: The Ghost's Child
Anne Fadiman (1953) American essayist, journalist and magazine editor
Source: Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader
“Danger lurks when people are dissociated and detached from their own story or feelings.”
Eve Ensler (1953) American playwright, performer, feminist, activist and artist
Source: Insecure at Last
“Draw your chair up close to the edge of the precipice and I’ll tell you a story.”
F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896–1940) American novelist and screenwriter
“Your heartbreak is just another version of the same old story.”
Jay McInerney book Bright Lights, Big City
Source: Bright Lights, Big City
Melina Marchetta book On the Jellicoe Road
Source: On the Jellicoe Road
“You have to be a bit of a liar to tell a story the right way.”
Patrick Rothfuss book The Name of the Wind
Source: The Name of the Wind
“You say their stories, it is gift they give you.”
Khaled Hosseini book And the Mountains Echoed
Source: And the Mountains Echoed
“The Universe is made of stories, not of atoms.”
Muriel Rukeyser (1913–1980) poet and political activist
"The Speed of Darkness"; this line is sometimes misquoted as "The Universe is made of stories not atoms."
The Speed of Darkness (1968)
Variant: The universe is made up of stories, not atoms.
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (1977) Nigerian writer
Source: https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/15-quotes-from-chimamanda-adichie-that-have-change/
“A story can be new and yet tell about olden times. The past comes into existence with the story.”
Michael Ende book The Neverending Story
Source: The Neverending Story
“Never again shall a single story be told as though it were the only one.”
John Berger (1926–2017) British painter, writer and art critic
“All love stories are the same.”
Paulo Coelho book By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept
Source: By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept
Maurice Sendak (1928–2012) American illustrator and writer of children's books
Source: Caldecott and Co.: Notes on Books and Pictures
“My life story is the story of everyone I've ever met.”
Jonathan Safran Foer book Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
Source: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
“While there may not be a book in every one of us, there is so often a damned good short story.”
Jeffrey Archer (1940) English author and former politician
Diane Setterfield book The Thirteenth Tale
Source: The Thirteenth Tale
Sherwood Smith book Crown Duel
Source: Crown Duel (Crown & Court #1 - 2, 1997)
“Cure for writer's block: blow something up(in the story)”
Scott Westerfeld (1963) American science fiction writer
“If every event which occurred could be given a name, there would be no need for stories.”
John Berger (1926–2017) British painter, writer and art critic
Source: Once In Europa
“Somethings were meant to be and somethings were just meant to be good stories”
Alethea Kontis (1976) American writer
Source: Enchanted
“What are we but our stories?”
James Patterson book Sam's Letters to Jennifer
Source: Sam's Letters to Jennifer
“You may do this, I tell you, it is permitted. Begin again the story of your life.”
Jane Hirshfield (1953) Poet
Source: The Lives of the Heart
Louis L'Amour (1908–1988) Novelist, short story writer
Source: Education of a Wandering Man
“All stories are true,” Skarpi said. “But this one really happened, if that’s what you mean.”
Patrick Rothfuss book The Name of the Wind
He took another slow drink, then smiled again, his bright eyes dancing. “More or less. You have to be a bit of a liar to tell a story the right way. Too much truth confuses the facts. Too much honesty makes you sound insincere.”
Source: The Name of the Wind (2007), Chapter 26, “Lanre Turned” (p. 203)
“Technology is the campfire around which we tell our stories.”
Laurie Anderson (1947) American musician
Naomi Shihab Nye (1952) American writer
Source: I'll Ask You Three Times, Are You OK?: Tales of Driving and Being Driven
“Fairy tales are such evil little stories for young children.”
Cecelia Ahern book Love, Rosie
Source: Love, Rosie
“If you've heard this story before, don't stop me, because I'd like to hear it again.”
Groucho Marx (1890–1977) American comedian
“We are not quite novels.
We are not quite short stories.
In the end, we are collected works.”
Gabrielle Zevin (1977) American writer
Source: The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry
“Stories are like children. They grow in their own way.”
Madeleine L'Engle A Swiftly Tilting Planet
Source: A Swiftly Tilting Planet
Stephen King book Different Seasons
Variant: No, it's not a very good story - its author was too busy listening to other voices to listen as closely as he should have to the one coming from inside.
Source: Different Seasons