I think that we want to be led slightly astray when we're being told a story. Just a little wrong footed.
The story is everything, so it always begins with a story. And research is a kind of scaffolding built underneath the story as I go along. My enjoyment level varies, but in general, I'm writing about topics I find interesting, so I can't gripe too much.
Living "in" a story, being part of a narrative, is much more satisfying than living without one. I don't always know what narrative it is, because I'm living my life and not always reflecting on it, but as I edit these pages I am aware that I have an urge to see my sometimes random wandering as having a plot, a purpose guided by some underlying story.
I've come to realize that people connect more when they know you're telling them the truth or some aspect of your story, some mutated version of how you are experiencing this life.
I don't have a story about an epiphany in which I suddenly realised I wanted to be an actor. It was much more a case of the idea dawning on me gradually.
I believe in the story [ of Adam and Eve]. For me, it's a story.
My biggest lesson. . . was to try and create narrators that were believable. . . . so the listener becomes really invested in the story or the song.
I mean, if I went into my closet, I could find a previous draft and try to figure that out, but it takes a long time for me to find the voice to tell a story in. I was working from other points of view for a couple years there.
Born and raised in Paris, I am deeply attached to my city; we almost have half a century of love story together, where I have been truly completely faithful! The most beautiful city in the world is my city, yeepeeee!
You're encouraged to pitch your own story. That way, you'll have more control over what you do.
There is no feeling to be compared with the feeling of having written and finished a story.
The stories are what no one wants to talk about. So you make up a story because no one is going to tell you the truth.
I think, though, that people will read into a reporter's story a bias that they want to see in a reporter.
Stories are thick with meanings. You can fall in love with a story for what you think it says, but you can't know for certain where it will lead your listeners. If you're telling a tale to teach children to be generous, they may fix instead on the part where your hero hides in an olive jar, then spend the whole next day fighting about who gets to try it first. People take what they need from the stories they hear. The tale is often wiser than the teller.
The first paragraph. The last paragraph. That's where the story is going and how it's going to end. Or else you'll go off in a hundred different directions.
The story of the human race is war. Except for brief and precarious interludes there has never been peace in the world; and long before history began murderous strife was universal and unending.
What's the problem with 'never?' It keeps you from trying. It ensures that you will fail. End of story.
If there's ever a character who can only serve one metaphor, I'll probably tell one story with that character and be done with it.
When I do my collection, it is in a way my own story.
With the first episode [of John Mulaney Show] I tell a story that happened to me accidentally chasing a woman down the subway.