Richard Dawkins - Anthony Burgess - Ernest Hemingway - The Lord of the Rings 2002 - Dawson Carr - Francis Bacon - Michael Shermer - Akbar Ahmed - Agatha Christie - Lucy Worsley TV - Troy 2004 - Star Trek: Deep Space Nine TV - Shelby Foote - John F Kennedy - II Maccabees 2:32 - Henry David Thoreau - Salman Rushdie - Hilary Mantel - George R R Martin - Albert Camus - Thomas Hardy - Vladimir Nabokov - William Shakespeare - Clive Barker - Revenge of the Green Dragons 2014 - Laurence Sterne - Monty Python's Flying Circus TV - Stories We Tell 2012 - Game of Thrones 2019 - Akala's Odyssey TV -
259. What shocks me today about such stories is not that they really happened – they probably didn’t. What makes my jaw drop is that people today should base their lives on such an appalling role model as Yahweh. And even worse, that they should bossily try to force the same evil monster, whether fact or fiction, on the rest of us. (God & Old Testament & Stories & Monster & God's Fascism) Professor Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion
2,330. In a story you had to find a reason, but real life gets on very well without even Freudian motivations. (Reason & Story & Life’s Like That) Anthony Burgess, Earthly Powers
9,404. Madame, all stories, if continued far enough, end in death, and he is no true-story teller who would keep that from you. (Death & Story) Ernest Hemingway
72,554. It’s like in the great stories, Mr Frodo, the ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger they were, and sometimes you didn’t want to know the end because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end, it’s only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come, and when the sun shines, it’ll shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you, that meant something even if you were too small to understand why. But I think Mr Frodo, I do understand, I know now. Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back, only they didn’t. They kept going because they were holding on to something ... That there’s some good in the world, Mr Frodo, and it’s worth fighting for. (Fantasy & Story) The Lord of the Rings II: Two Towers 2002 starring Elijah Wood & Ian McKellan & Viggo Mortensen & Liv Tyler & Sean Astin & Cate Blanchett & John Rhys-Davies & Bernard Hill & Christopher Lee & Billy Boyd & Dominic Monaghan & Orlando Bloom & Hugo Weaving & Karl Urban & Sean Bean & Andy Serkis et al, director Peter Jackson, Sam
10,675. Caravaggio’s revolution was to treat biblical and mythological subjects with realism. He completely eschews idealization. That runs completely counter to the tradition of his day. He is also a very great storyteller. He’s brilliant at digesting the stories and picking the moment that encapsulates the story. (Art & Story) Dawson Carr, curator of Caravaggio retrospective National Gallery London
11,071. I don’t want to tell a story. I’ve no story to tell. (Art & Story) Francis Bacon, cited The Art of Francis Bacon
11,811. It’s mythic storytelling, nothing more. (Bible & Story) Michael Shermer, Skeptics magazine
11,887. Cain & Able: The story becomes an allegory. And because it is so powerful in reflecting us ... it becomes so relevant to us in the twenty-first century. (Cain & Able & Murder & Story) Professor Akbar Ahmed
13,744. Plots come to one at such odd moments, when you’re walking along the street and examining a hat shop with particular interest, suddenly a splendid idea comes into your head and you think now that would be a very neat way of covering up the crime so that nobody would get it too soon. Of course all the practical details are still to work out. The people have to seep slowly into your consciousness. (Murder & Story & Detectives) Agatha Christie
13,804. Murder’s the darkest and most despicable crime of all. And yet we're attracted to it. Grisly crimes like these would appall us if we encountered them in real life. But something happens when they’re turned into stories and safely placed between the covers of a book. (Murder & Novel & Book & Story) A Very British Murder with Lucy Worsley I: The New Taste for Blood, BBC 2013
20,506. If they ever tell my story, let them say I walked with giants. (GBH Films & Greece & Troy & Story & Giants) Troy 2004 starring Brad Pitt & Eric Bana & Orlando Bloom & Rose Byrne & Peter O'Toole & Diane Kruger & Brian Cox & Sean Bean & Julie Christie & Saffron Burrows et al, director Wolfgang Petersen, commentary
24,762. You know what I like about Klingon stories? Nothing. Lots of people die and nobody makes a profit. (Star Trek & Story) Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: Sword of Kahless s4e9, Quark
24,956. I’ve just written the best story of my life. (Star Trek & Story) Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: Far Beyond The Stars s6e13, Benny
24,957. But you know I can’t print it. Oh come on, Benny. Your hero’s a Negro captain. The head of a space station, for Christ’s sake. (Star Trek & Story) ibid. Douglas the boss (Odo)
28,536. The American Civil War – April to April, Sumter to Appomattox, 1861 to 1865 – pervades the national conscience ... It makes a great story. I know of none since the Iliad that rivals it either in drama or in pathos. (United States & Civil War & Story) Shelby Foote, foreword to The Blue and the Gray
34,282. We cannot, under the scrutiny of a free press and public, tell different stories to different audiences, foreign and domestic, friendly and hostile. (Kennedy & Story & Politics) John F Kennedy, November 1961
73,347. It is a foolish thing to make a long prologue, and to be short in the story itself. (Fool & Story) II Maccabees 2:32
89,862. Not that the story need be long, but it will take a long while to make it short. Henry David Thoreau, letter 16th November 1857
89,863. No story comes from nowhere; new stories are born from old – it is the new combinations that make them new. Salman Rushdie, Haroun and the Sea of Stories 1990
89,864. Some of these things are true and some of them lies. But they are all good stories. Hilary Mantel, Wolf Hall
89,865. Most have been forgotten. Most deserve to be forgotten. The heroes will always be remembered. The best. The best and the worst. And a few who were a bit of both. George R R Martin, A Feast for Crows
89,866. Don’t let them tell us stories. Albert Camus
89,867. Only a man harrowing clods
In a slow silent walk
With an old horse that stumbles and nods
Half asleep as they stalk.
Only thin smoke without flame
From the heaps of couch-grass;
Yet this will go onward the same
Though Dynasties pass.
Yonder a maid and her wight
Come whispering by:
War's annals will cloud into night
Ere their story die. (Story & Countryside & War) Thomas Hardy, In Time of ‘The Breaking of Nations’ 1915, from Moments of Vision (1917)