42 Great Quotes On Storytelling
It’s not money that makes the world go around its stories.
They are baked into the human source code allowing us to become the most dominant of the species.
They can make us laugh, cry, and empathise with one another.
Big fans of storytelling, here are some of the best quotes we’ve come across on the topic.
1. “The end of a story is like the end of a good meal. We’re sated but it doesn’t mean that we’ll never be hungry again.”
- Kate Tellers, Director of MothWorks
2. “Takeoff and landing are considered the most dangerous parts of a flight. And so it goes with stories.”
- Jenifer Hixson, Senior Director at The Moth
3. “Think like a wise man but communicate in the language of the people.”
- William Butler Yeats, Irish poet
4. “No tribal Chief or Elder has ever handed out statistical reports, charts, graphs, or lists to explain where the group is headed or what it must do.”
- Peg Neuhauser, Author & business consultant
5. “The best leaders...almost without exception and at every level, are master users of stories and symbols.”
- Tom Peters, American business author
6. “The best arguments in the world won’t change a person’s mind. The only thing that can do that is a good story.”
- Richard Powers, American novelist
7. “It is precisely because great narratives seduce us that the best stories deserve the greatest skepticism.”
- Derek Thompson, American podcaster and journalist
8. “Stories are how we remember; we tend to forget lists and bullet points.”
- Robert McKee, Author
9. “Above all, a great story should be an invitation to think, not a substitute for thinking.”
- Derek Thompson, American podcaster and journalist
10. “A story is a trick for sneaking a message into the fortified citadel of the human mind.”
- Jonathan Gottschall, Author
11. “Scratch the surface in a typical boredom and we’re all just cavemen with briefcases, hungry for a wise person to tell us stories.”
- Alan Kay, an HP exec and co-founder of Xerox PARC
12. “We are, as a species, addicted to story. Even when the body goes to sleep, the mind stays up all night, telling itself stories.”
- Jonathan Gottschall, American author
13. “There is no terror in the bang only in the anticipation of it.”
- Alfred Hitchcock, Filmmaker
14. “One should use common words to say uncommon things.”
- Arthur Schopenhauer, German philosopher
15. “We tell stories to make sense of things. It’s in our blood.”
- Lia Hills, Poet and novelist
16. “Examine every word you put on paper. You'll find a surprising number that don't serve any purpose.”
- William Zinsser, American writer
17. “The best way to teach people is by telling a story.”
- Kenneth Blanchard, American author and business professional
18. “One might say that the chaos of life is a chronic condition for which stories are the remedy.”
- Derek Thompson, American podcaster and journalist
19. "After nourishment, shelter, and companionship, stories are the thing we need most in the world."
- Philip Pullman, Author
20. “The common stories are one plus one equals two. We get it, they make sense. But the good stories are about one plus one equals three.”
- Ken Burns, Filmmaker
21. “Sometimes reality is too complex. Stories give it form.”
- Jean-Luc Godard, French-Swiss film director
22. “Listen, and you will realize that we are made not from cells or from atoms. We are made from stories.”
- Mia Couto, Mozambican writer
23. “All great literature is one of two stories; a man goes on a journey or a stranger comes to town.”
- Leo Tolstoy, Russian writer
24. “I think the best stories always end up being about the people rather than the event, which is to say character-driven.”
- Stephen King, Author
25. “Humans are pattern-seeking story-telling animals, and we are quite adept at telling stories about patterns, whether they exist or not.”
- Michael Shermer, American science writer
26. “Whatever story you're telling, it will be more interesting if, at the end you add, "and then everything burst into flames.”
- Brian P. Cleary, American poet and writer
27. “The basic rule of storytelling is ‘show, don’t tell.”
– Julianna Baggott, Novelist, essayist, and poet
28. “Stories are memory aids, instruction manuals and moral compasses.”
– Aleks Krotoski, Broadcaster & journalist
29. “Great stories happen to those who can tell them.”
– Ira Glass, American public radio personality
30. “Storytelling is the game. It's what we all do. It's why Nike is Nike, it's why Apple is Apple, it's why Walt Disney built Disney World and it's why Vince McMahon makes a billion dollars.”
- Gary Vaynerchuk, American entrepreneur
31. “Storytelling has a narcotic power.”
- Robert Harris, British novelist
32. “From a storytelling perspective, perfection is death.”
- Brian Azzarello, American comic book writer
33. “People are hungry for stories. It's part of our very being. Storytelling is a form of history, of immortality too. It goes from one generation to another.”
- Studs Terkel, American writer and historian
34. “Sometime reality is too complex. Stories give it form.”
- Jean Luc Godard, French-Swiss film director
35. “You want to tell a story? Grow a heart. Grow two. Now, with the second heart, smash the first one into bits.”
- Charles Yu, American writer
36. “You can do more with a castle in a story than with the best cardboard castle that ever stood on a nursery table.”
- C.S. Lewis, British writer
37. “Storytelling is as natural as breathing; plotting is the literary version of artificial respiration.”
- Stephen King, Author
38. “Power consists to a large extent in deciding what stories will be told.”
- Carolyn Heilbrun, American academic
39. “People don't think in terms of information. They think in terms of narratives. But while people focus on the story itself, information comes along for the ride.”
- Jonah Berger, Author
40. “If you’ve heard this story before, don’t stop me, because I’d like to hear it again.”
- Groucho Marx, American comedian
41. “The way we experience story will evolve, but as storytelling animals, we will no more give it up than start walking on all fours.”
- Jonathan Gottschall, Author
42. “The greatest story commandment is: Make me care.”
- Andrew Stanton, PIXAR
If you want to become a better storyteller, you will enjoy our wildly popular Storytelling course, which was created with some of the world’s experts and certified by Cannes Lions.
