“But it was Mother who spun the stories that made the things we studied really unforgettable. If Dad saw motion study and teamwork in an ant hill, Mother saw a highly complex civilization governed, perhaps, by a fat old queen who had a thousand black slaves bring her breakfast in bed mornings. If Dad stopped to explain the construction of a bridge, she would find the workman in his blue jeans, eating his lunch high on the top of the span. It was she who made us feel the breathless height of the structure and the relative puniness of the humans who had built it. Or if Dad pointed out a tree that had been bent and gnarled, it was Mother who made us sense how the wind, eating against the tree in the endless passing of time, had made its own relentless mark.”
“It would be a shame not to be able to take at least one story with us when we die”
“In a nutshell: A story is about how the things that happen affect someone in pursuit of a difficult goal, and how that person changes internally as a result.”
“Jacob will think: What is at stake in sharing this story? And Wilhelm will think: What is at stake in leaving this story untold?”
“Our lives have ebbs and flows. Ends and beginnings are illusions. Starting over is nothing more than recognizing The Pause before picking up your thread and continuing to weave your own story.”
“Wondering is an entirely different pastime for you, I think. You can turn it into something more than worry.”
“The physicality of storytelling must remain strong.”
“Journalism, like English, is about the pursuit of truth in storytelling, not presenting information with the absence of judgment.”
“মানুষ হিসেব চায় না, চায় গল্প। হিসেবের দরকার আছে বৈকি, কিন্তু ঐ একটু মিলিয়ে নেবার জন্য, তার বেশি নয়। হিসেবের খাতায় গল্পের খাতায় এইখানেই তফাত। হিসেব থাকে না মনের ভিতরে, ফুটো দিয়ে বেরিয়ে যায়, থাকে গল্প।”
“To my way of thinking, whether it’s a superhero movie or a romance or a comedy or whatever, the most important thing is you’ve got to care about the characters. You’ve got to understand the characters and you’ve got to be interested. If the characters are interesting, you’re half-way home.”
“Tell your story even if you have a small audience.”
“Shame unravels our connection to others. In fact, I often refer to shame as the fear of disconnection - the fear of being perceived as flawed and unworthy of acceptance or belonging. Shame keeps us from telling our own stories and prevents us from listening to others tell their stories. We silence our voices and keep our secrets out fo the fear of disconnection.”
“The stories we tell about who we are as a nation, and the values that define us, are not fixed. They change as facts change. They change as the balance of power in society changes. Which is why regular people, not just governments, need to be active participants in this process of retelling and reimagining our collective stories, symbols, and histories.”
“Stories don t show the audience the real world ; they show the story world. The story world isn t a copy of life as it is. It s life as human beings imagine it could be. It is human life condensed and heightened so that the audience can gain a better understanding of how life itself works.”
“The storyteller says, I am here. Does it matter? The words that I found in these books were a person calling out from a page, I am worthy of being heard and you are worthy of hearing my story. It seems simple but it s a bold declaration.”
“Art goes both ways. Writers tell stories & think they mean one thing. Readers take stories into their own lives & they mean something else.”
“There are so many great stories that happen in real life there s really no need to think them up at all. I always tell children I have got idea antennae flapping around waiting to grab ideas as they fly past.”