I never want to write a book just to tell a story. There is always something deeper going on.
I've heard from quite a few people, you sense that there is an ownership of the [ Cinderella], it was so personal for so many people, so I was interested in trying to work out why that was.
Neither novels or their readers benefit from any attempts to divine whether any facts hide inside a story. Such efforts attack the very idea that made-up stories can matter, which is sort of the foundational assumption of our species.
A story is a way to say something that can’t be said any other way, and it takes every word in the story to say what the meaning is.
I can't control what a reader takes from a story.
The thing about stories is you have to pick the ones that last.
The difference between writing a story and simply relating past events is that a story, in order to be acceptable, must have shape and meaning. It is the old idea that art is the bringing of order out of chaos.
The truth of a myth...is not in its words but its patterns.
Stories are really important to people and can really change the way they understand, and even live, their lives. As such, I don't agree much with people who say, 'Calm down, it's just a story.'
Telling our stories is what saves us. The story is enough... The very act of storytelling, of arranging memory and invention according to the structure of narrative is, by definition, holy.
I think that story wins out over acting and that the thing as a whole is more important than the performances therein.
I always find it fun to read a script and then find the messages in the script because I believe every story has them.
A film should always at least be about something.
I just want to write someone’s favorite book
If you're going to have a story, have a big story, or none at all.
The only question that matters with regard to a religion and its mythology is “What do these stories mean?
My mother was religious; she was knowledgeable about mythology and scriptures; she could tell the metaphysical nuances and make the story come to life with their deeper significance. The current generation is missing out on this.
No albums are better or worse than each other, and they're all important to our legacy and our story.
I'm interested in telling stories that add up to more than the entertainment of the story. That's what does it for me.
Any show I'm working on, I want the stories to always be about something, and to have the potential to be emotional. That's the kind of story that I like.
The good ending dismisses us with a touch of ceremony and throws a backward light of significance over the story just read. It makes it, as they say, or unmakes it. A weak beginning is forgettable, but the end of a story bulks in the reader's mind like the giant foot in a foreshortened photograph.
The drawing and the crafting of the story are fun, but it's the overall meaning that matters to me. It might escape some people who just want to read a comic, and that's fine. The overall meaning is what matters.
I didn't want [actress] just to be a woman standing at the window, waving hello and goodbye to men as they came and went in the world that they were struggling through. I wanted her to have a true function.
Many a trivial novel has been written about an important subject, and many a profound one about nothing in particular.
'Night They Missed the Horror Show' is my signature story. It changed my life, so it remains my favorite.
