Quotes about Narrative

I wondered if when we take Christian theology out of the context of its narrative, when we ignore the poetry in which it is presented, when we turn it into formulas to help us achieve the American dream, we lose its meaning entirely, and the ideas become fodder for the head but have no impact on the way we live our lives or think about God. This is, perhaps, why people are so hostile toward religion.

Story is the greatest weapon we have to combat noise, because it organizes information in such a way that people are compelled to listen.

A good story takes a series of random events and distills them into the essence of what really matters.

When storytellers bombard people with too much information, the audience is forced to burn too many calories organizing the data.

And stories are all about conflict.

Like chords of music in the sense that you can use them to create an infinite variety of narrative expression.

Your customer should be the hero of the story, not your brand. This is the secret every phenomenally successful business understands.

Storytellers use the guide character to encourage the hero and equip them to win the day.

I only say this about the children because I used to believe charming people were charming because they were charming, or confident people were confident because they were confident. But all this is, of course, circular. The truth is, we are all living out the character of the roles we have played in our stories.

Unless we identify something our customer wants, they will never feel invited into the story we are telling.

It's the crossing of that distance that makes the story work.

And I found myself wanting even better stories. And that's the thing you'll realize when you organize your life into the structure of story.