Whatever may be the success of my stories, I shall be resolute in preserving my incognito, having observed that a nom de plume secures all the advantages without the disagreeables of reputation.
The advance of freedom is the great story of our time.
When one side only of a story is heard and often repeated, the human mind becomes impressed with it insensibly.
I am the fool in this story, and no rebel shall hurl me from my throne.
The grinding power of the plain words of the Gospel story is like the power of mill-stones, and those who can read them simply enough will feel as if rocks had been rolled upon them.
The highest and noblest thing that history can be is a good story.
Christianity met the mythological search for romance by being a story and the philosophical search for truth by being a true story.
With every step of our lives we enter into the middle of some story which we are certain to misunderstand.
A detective story generally describes six living men discussing how it is that a man is dead. A modern philosophic story generally describes six dead men discussing how any man can possibly be alive.
I had always felt life first as a story: and if there is a story there is a story-teller.
I want us to organize, to tell the personal stories that create empathy, which is the most revolutionary emotion.
The dogma is that that dogma is a mistake.
When a husband’s story is believed, he begins to suspect his wife.
If writing novels is like planting a forest, then writing short stories is more like planting a garden.
It’s like Tolstoy said. Happiness is an allegory, unhappiness a story.
That’s how stories happen – with a turning point, an unexpected twist. There’s only one kind of happiness, but misfortune comes in all shapes and sizes. It’s like Tolstoy said. Happiness is an allegory, unhappiness a story.
A story is not something of this world. A real story requires a kind of magical baptism to link the world on this side with the world on the other side.
That’s what we all do: endlessly take the long way around.
When I start to write, I don’t have any plan at all. I just wait for the story to come.
The moon had been observing the earth close-up longer than anyone. It must have witnessed all of the phenomena occurring – and all of the acts carried out – on this earth. But the moon remained silent; it told no stories.