“She can paint a lovely picture, but this story has a twist. her paintbrush is a razor, and her canvas is her wrist.”
“Language is like a road, it cannot be perceived all at once because it unfolds in time, whether heard or read. This narrative or temporal element has made writing and walking resemble each other.”
“I think the difference between a lie and a story is that a story utilizes the trappings and appearance of truth for the interest of the listener as well as of the teller. A story has in it neither gain nor loss. But a lie is a device for profit or escape. I suppose if that definition is strictly held to, then a writer of stories is a liar - if he is financially fortunate.”
“Human stories are practically always about one thing, really, aren t they? Death. The inevitability of death. . . . . . (quoting an obituary) There is no such thing as a natural death. Nothing that ever happens to man is natural, since his presence calls the whole world into question. All men must die, but for every man his death is an accident, and even if he knows it he would sense to it an unjustifiable violation. Well, you may agree with the words or not, but those are the key spring of The Lord Of The Rings”
“Your story is the greatest legacy that you will leave to your friends.It s the longest-lasting legacy you will leave to your heirs.”
“I think it is vanity to want to put into a story anything but the story itself.”
“The very act of story-telling, of arranging memory and invention according to the structure of the narrative, is by definition holy. We tell stories because we can t help it. We tell stories because we love to entertain and hope to edify. We tell stories because they fill the silence death imposes. We tell stories because they save us.”
“The inciting incident is how you get (characters) to do something. It s the doorway through which they can t return, you know. The story takes care of the rest.”
“Story is metaphor for life and life is lived in time.”
“I ve been so thoroughly incorporated into the California culture that I practice meditation and go to a therapist, even though I always set a trap: during my meditation I invent stories to keep from being bored, and in therapy I invent stories to keep from boring the psychologist.”
“The people who d made the system thus were jealous, not of money and not of power but of story. If their employees came home at day s end with interesting stories to tell, it meant that something had gone wrong: a blackout, a strike, a spree killing. The Powers That Be would not suffer others to be in stories of their own unless they were fake stories that had been made up to motivate them.”
“Every story is informed by a worldview.”
“It is the story that owns and directs us. It is the thing that makes us different from cattle; it is the mark on the face that sets one people apart from their neighbors.”
“End of story. ‘Happily ever after’ fell on everyone like a guillotine’s blade.”
“Writing is hard work, and if anything s true about the process, it s that fact that a good story is hard to find and even trickier to get on paper. What s less romantic than staring alone at a blank screen? And edgy? I ve changed the cat little because I didn t know what my characters were going to say next.”
“Health is hearty, health is harmony, health is happiness.”
“Love is infinite. Grief can lead to love. Love can lead to grief. Grief is a love story told backward just as love is a grief story told backward.”