Stories Quotes - Page 39

• Habit hath so vast a prevalence over the human mind that there is scarce anything too strange or too strong to be asserted of it. The story of the miser who, from long accustoming to cheat others, came at last to cheat himself, and with great delight and triumph picked his own pocket of a guinea to convey to his hoard, is not impossible or improbable.

  Henry Fielding

  Strong, Long, Mind

  Henry Fielding (2012). “Joseph Andrews”, p.186, tredition

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• Story involves action. Action towards an end not to be foreseen (by the reader) but also towards an end which, having been reached, must be seen to have been from the start inevitable.

  Elizabeth Bowen

  Action, Ends, Inevitable

  Elizabeth Bowen (1950). “Collected Impressions”

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• every short story is an experiment - what one must ask is not only, did it come off, but was it, as an experiment, worth making?

  Elizabeth Bowen

  Short Story, Experiments, Asks

  Elizabeth Bowen (1959). “Stories”

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• 'Upside Down' is a fantasy love story. It's about love at first sight - when you just fall in love instantly and will battle any obstacle to be with that girl.

  Jim Sturgess

  Girl, Falling In Love, Sight

  "Hot Topic: Jim Sturgess" by Katie Amey, www.elle.com. March 15, 2013.

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• The Christian religion is derogatory to the Creator in all its articles. It puts the Creator in an inferior point of view, and places the Christian devil above him. It is he, according to the absurd story in Genesis, that outwits the Creator in the Garden Eden, and steals from Him His favorite creature, man, and at last obliges Him to beget a son, and put that son to death, to get man back again; and this the priests of the Christian religion call redemption.

  Thomas Paine

  Christian, Son, Men

  Thomas Paine (2016). “COMMON SENSE (Political Classics Series): Advocating Independence to People in the Thirteen Colonies - Addressed to the Inhabitants of America”, p.598, e-artnow

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• Perserverance. . .that's been the story of my family.

  Barry Goldwater

  Perserverance, My Family

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• On the Greek stage a drama, or acted story, consisted in reality of three dramas, called together a trilogy, and performed consecutively in the course of one day.

  Samuel Taylor Coleridge

  Drama, Reality, Greek

  Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1858). “The complete works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge: With an introductory essay upon his philosophical and theological opinions”, p.60

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• As anyone who has received or dispensed psychotherapy knows, it's a profession whose mainspring is love. Nearly everyone who visits a therapist has a love disorder of one sort or another, and each has a story to tell - of love lost or denied, love twisted or betrayed, love perverted or shackled to violence. Broken attachments litter the office floors like pick-up sticks. People appear with frayed seams and spilling pockets.

  Diane Ackerman

  Lost Love, Attachment, People

  Diane Ackerman (2011). “A Natural History of Love: Author of the National Bestseller A Natural History of the Senses”, p.136, Vintage

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• Graves they say are warm'd by glory;
  Foolish words and empty story.

  Heinrich Heine

  Glory, Foolish, Empty

  Heinrich Heine (2016). “Delphi Complete Poetical Works of Heinrich Heine (Illustrated)”, p.787, Delphi Classics

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• Allowing an unimportant mistake to pass without a comment is a wonderful social grace ... Children who have the habit of constantly correcting should be stopped before they grow up to drive spouses and everyone else crazy by interrupting stories to say, 'No, dear -- it was Tuesday, not Wednesday.

  Judith Martin

  Children, Growing Up, Crazy

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• Ever since I was first read to, then started reading to myself, there has never been a line read that I didn't hear. As my eyes followed the sentence, a voice was saying it silently to me. It isn't my mother's voice, or the voice of any person I can identify, certainly not my own. It is human, but inward, and it is inwardly that I listen to it. It is to me the voice of the story or the poem itself.

  Eudora Welty

  Mother, Reading, Eye

  Eudora Welty (1995). “One Writer's Beginnings”, p.11, Harvard University Press

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• Daydreaming had started me on the way; but story writing once I was truly in its grip, took me and shook me awake.

  Eudora Welty

  Writing, Way, Daydreaming

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• My own words, when I am at work on a story, I hear too as they go, in the same voice that I hear when I read in books. When I write and the sound of it comes back to my ears, then I act to make changes. I have always trusted this voice.

  Eudora Welty

  Book, Writing, Voice

  Eudora Welty (1995). “One Writer's Beginnings”, p.12, Harvard University Press

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• Each story tells me how to write it, but not the one afterwards.

  Eudora Welty

  Writing

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• What happens to children and families today who sit around the television? They're watching made-up stories. It's not their experience and it's not truly shared. A human being must learn at a very young age how to connect to other human beings. Our technologies are driving us apart, only connecting us in terms of information, not in terms of emotions.

  Rita Mae Brown

  Children, Technology, Made Up Stories

  Rita Mae Brown (2009). “Rita Will: Memoir of a Literary Rabble-Rouser”, p.138, Bantam

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• A vivid portrait of a teenage girl and her family in disarray. Meredith is a wonderful narrator, witty, feisty, full of yearning, and the story she tells is as complicated as life itself. This is a richly satisfying novel.

  Margot Livesey

  Girl, Witty, Teenage

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• Hallmark makes beautiful films that feel as if they should be watched in a theater. The Hall family knows the power of stories, and they give us unforgettable movies with heart and depth and the resonance of classics.

  Luanne Rice

  Beautiful, Heart, Giving

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• I was raised by and have raised people who regard telling one story when two would do as a sign someone is not really trying.

  Linda Ellerbee

  Two, People, Trying

  Linda Ellerbee (1987). “"And so it goes": adventures in television”, Berkley Pub Group

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• I think Im different from a lot of singer-songwriters because some of my favorite singer-songwriters told stories. Like John Prine.

  Jill Sobule

  Thinking, Different, Singers

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• I tell stories to music and, thank God, in tune.

  Pearl Bailey

  Music, Thank God, Tunes

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• The inside operation of Congress - the deals, the compromises, the selling out, the co-opting, the unprincipled manipulating, the self-serving career-building - is a story of such monumental decadence that I believe if people find out about it they will demand an end to it.

  Bella Abzug

  Believe, Careers, Government

  Bella S. Abzug (1972). “Bella!: Ms. Abzug Goes to Washington”, Saturday Review Press

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• A poem (surely someone has said this before) is a one-night stand, a short story a love affair, and a novel a marriage.

  Erica Jong

  Night, Literature, Affair

  Erica Jong (1995). “How to Save Your Own Life”, N A L Trade

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• what storyteller is adequate to her story? The story carries us along, bottles on the tide, each with our secret mesage and the fervent hope that it does not turn out to be blank.

  Erica Jong

  Secret, Doe, Bottles

  Erica Jong (2013). “Shylock's Daughter: A Novel of Love in Venice”, p.10, Open Road Media

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• Mostly it's lies, writing novels. You set out to tell an untrue story and you try to make it believable, even to yourself. Which calls for details; any good lie does.

  Anne Tyler

  Lying, Writing, Trying

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• No man can be friends with a woman he finds attractive. He always wants to have sex with her. Sex is always out there. Friendship is ultimately doomed and that is the end of the story.

  Nora Ephron

  Sex, Men, Want

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