50 Best Inspirational Quotes for Storytelling

Quotes for Storytelling: Words have the greatest ability to take us over time and space and tell stories that speak to the core of our humanity. The purpose of this collection is to inspire and expand your storytelling art through a carefully assembled masterpiece of wisdom—a repository of insights from seasoned storytellers and literary legends. Read below.

“The purpose of a storyteller is not to tell you how to think, but to give you questions to think upon.” – Brandon Sanderson

“A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies, said Jojen. The man who never reads lives only one.” – George R.R. Martin

“Stories can defeat fear, you know. They can make the heart bigger.” – Ben Okri

“The universe is made of stories, not atoms.” – Muriel Rukeyser

“Stories have to be told or they die, and when they die, we can’t remember who we are or why we’re here.” – Sue Monk Kidd

“There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.” – Maya Angelou

“Stories are a communal currency of humanity.” – Tahir Shah

“A story is not an explanation, it is a net, a net through which the truth flows.” – Anne Carson

“The most important things are the hardest to say, because words diminish them.” – Stephen King

“Every great story seems to begin with a snake.” – Nicolas Cage

“A good story can travel as far as the listener’s mind can take it.” – J.K. Rowling

“The best stories don’t come from ‘good vs. bad’ but ‘good vs. good.'” – Leo Tolstoy

“Stories of imagination tend to upset those without one.” – Terry Pratchett

“Great stories happen to those who can tell them.” – Ira Glass

“A story should have a beginning, a middle, and an end… but not necessarily in that order.” – Jean-Luc Godard

“Stories may well be lies, but they are good lies that say true things, and which can sometimes pay the rent.” – Neil Gaiman

“The stories we love best live in us forever.” – J.K. Rowling

“A story is a letter that the author writes to himself, to tell himself things that he would be unable to discover otherwise.” – Carlos Ruiz Zafón

“It’s the possibility of having a dream come true that makes life interesting.” – Paulo Coelho

“We are all storytellers. We all live in a network of stories. There isn’t a stronger connection between people than storytelling.” – Jimmy Neil Smith

“Stories are a way to preserve one’s self. To be remembered. And to forget.” – Yann Martel

“Stories make us more alive, more human, more courageous, more loving.” – Madeleine L’Engle

“A short story is a love affair; a novel is a marriage.” – Lorrie Moore

“The best stories are like the best burgers: big, juicy, and messy.” – A.D. Posey

“To make a great film, you need three things – the script, the script, and the script.” – Alfred Hitchcock

“Stories are the creative conversion of life itself into a more powerful, clearer, more meaningful experience.” – Robert McKee

“Stories are the communal currency of humanity.” – Tahir Shah

“The purpose of a storyteller is to keep alive the wonder and awe of the age we live in.” – Laurel Braitman

“Stories are the single most powerful weapon in a leader’s arsenal.” – Howard Gardner

“Storytelling is the most powerful way to put ideas into the world today.” – Robert McKee

“Every story I create creates me. I write to create myself.” – Octavia E. Butler

“The world is shaped by two things — stories told and the memories they leave behind.” – Vera Nazarian

“There are always stories. With the right kind of eyes, you can almost see them.” – George R.R. Martin

“A story is a way to say something that can’t be said any other way.” – Flannery O’Connor

“Storytelling reveals meaning without committing the error of defining it.” – Hannah Arendt

“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

“The beauty of a living thing is not the atoms that go into it, but the way those atoms are put together.” – Carl Sagan

“The only thing that you absolutely have to know is the location of the library.” – Albert Einstein

“Stories are the creative conversion of life itself into a more powerful, clearer, more meaningful experience.” – Robert McKee

“The best time for planning a book is while you’re doing the dishes.” – Agatha Christie

“Stories are the creative conversion of life itself into a more powerful, clearer, more meaningful experience.” – Robert McKee

“A good story is always more dazzling than a broken piece of truth.” – Diane Setterfield

“The story you are telling is never just yours. It always belongs to someone else as well.” – Unknown

“We are all fools in love.” – Jane Austen

“The purpose of a storyteller is not to tell you how to think, but to give you questions to think upon.” – Brandon Sanderson

“A good story is always more dazzling than a broken piece of truth.” – Diane Setterfield

“Every secret of a writer’s soul, every experience of his life, every quality of his mind is written large in his works.” – Virginia Woolf

“Stories have to be told or they die, and when they die, we can’t remember who we are or why we’re here.” – Sue Monk Kidd

“Great stories happen to those who can tell them.” – Ira Glass

“A story is a way to say something that can’t be said any other way.” – Flannery O’Connor

“The most valuable of all talents is that of never using two words when one will do.” – Thomas Jefferson

The reading of all good books is like a conversation with the finest minds of past centuries.

The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.” – Dr. Seuss