Great Story Quotes

While they read these stories, moreover - and this is a comforting thought for those who believe that the best way for anyone to become a lover of real literature is to be exposed to it early and often - boys and girls are not only gratifying their love for a
stirring tale, they are making the acquaintance of the great story-tellers of the past, taking them into their lives as companions. This early contact gives children an experience which will keep their horizon in after life from being entirely circumscribed by the mediocre and ephemeral. If a boy has sailed the wine dark Aegean, or climbed a height whence he could watch Roland's last heroic stand in the Pass of Roncevaux, some gleam remains, and there is far less likelihood that his adult reading will be entirely commonplace. ~ Anne Thaxter Eaton

People do not buy fortune cookies because they taste better than every other cookie on the shelf. They buy them for the delight they deliver at the end of a meal. Marketers spend most of their time selling the cookie, when what they should be doing is finding a way to create a better fortune. Of course your job is to bake a good cookie, the very best that you can, but you must also spend time figuring out how to tell a great story. ~ William Mougayar

A great story can change the world. ~ Stewart Stafford

It takes courage, humiliating courage, to step aside from your own sovereignty and imagined control and begin looking for the gift that comes unmerited. Yes, I'm talking about grace. Grace by my definition is the gift that comes unearned. In a world of unbelievably able bodies, where new diets are fashioned every day to keep my brand of story away, it is hard to realize you may be living in the middle of the best story ever told. That the story of breast cancer could possibly be a good story? A great story even? It would be easier to shake my fist at the test results and scream that this isn't the right story, but to receive - humbly receive - the story no one would ever want, and know there is goodness in the midst of its horror, is not something I could ever do in my own strength. I simply cannot. That receiving comes from the One who received His own suffering for a much greater purpose than my own. ~ Kara Tippetts

When I'm writing, I try not to think things like, 'Gosh, I have to finish writing this book.' Books are very long and it's easy to get discouraged. Instead I think to myself, 'Wow, I have this great story idea, and today I'm going to write two pages of it. That's all - just two pages.' ~ Linda Sue Park

The story of Kal-El is actually a great story about adoption. He is an alien who has embraced his human side. As much as he loves and honours his heritage, and he needed to know where he came from and discover who he was, he has to decide who he is going to be. ~ Charles Roven

Every great story seems to begin with a snake. ~ Nicolas Cage

We see great growth in the United States. But also in China, Brazil, the U.K., and other markets around the world. So ecommerce is going to continue to be a great story for Walmart. ~ Mike Duke

They're classic themes, which is why I think it's such a great story to look at again. The concept of being loyal to your friends, to the point where you'd even die for them, is a great subject. ~ Adrian Hodges

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button", great story, great film. ~ Deyth Banger

People say everybody has a book inside them, so why not make your life a great story? ~ Martha Louise Hunter

I spy with my little eye a great story. ~ John Green

I've gone to China, bought a manufacturing company and moved it to America. Now China wants to buy back some of that new technology from me. That's a great story for America. ~ Terry McAuliffe

What creates success on HSN is great product, a great story and a great storyteller. ~ Mindy Grossman

My uncle told a great story with his life, but I think there was such a sadness at his funeral because his story wasn't finished. If you aren't telling a good story, nobody thinks you died too soon; they just think you died. But my uncle died too soon. ~ Donald Miller

Thank God, 50 years ago I learned that a great song, our entire business is all based on two things; a great song and a great story. Film, television, if you don't have that story, nothing else matters. You don't call anybody else or direct anybody. The same with a song. A great song can make the worst singer in the world a star. ~ Quincy Jones

A great story is impossible to forget. ~ A.D. Posey

When writing a book what is more important? Grammar and spelling or telling a great story? I know which I would choose. ~ Samuel Colbran

It's always a challenge bringing a great story classic to the screen. Giving visual form to the characters and places that have only existed in the imagination. But it's the kind of challenge we enjoy. ~ Walt Disney

Am not great, but being the story of every whisper is just the greatest. ~ Ahmed Farrag

You know there's some great folks, great story telling at 'Dateline,' and I'm glad to be a part of it. ~ Lester Holt

Creatures of the Darkness
BY VICKI JORDAN

It was world of vampires and demons, where innocence
was rare and so were the living. It was a world of darkness,
where light had been outlawed and nightfall had swallowed
us whole.

An epic war had been fought, and the creatures of the dark
had finally prevailed over the promoters of the light. Finally,
for the first time in existence, the people of the shadows could
come out and freely walk among one another in the rays of the
dying sun, which had once been used to shun them away.

A little girl, a child of the light, had survived the battle and
crawled out from under the ashes of the destruction. She looked
around at her altered world in dismay and confronted a vampire
about the changes, of which she did not approve.

"Why did you turn my world into a world of night, and make
wrong into a new form of right? How could you make all the light
disappear, and with it everyone I once loved so dear? Why are the
shadows now the new sun, and why is everything lost what you have
won?"
The vampire looked down at the little girl with amusement
and delight.

"Because, little girl, this is the real world you see, where there's no
light to shine on false identities. We didn't destroy the world just to scare;
we simply uncovered what was already there. What has come out was all the
~ Chris Colfer

The basic quality that any great story must have is a story that illustrates the human condition. ~ William Shatner

Every great love starts with a great story... ~ Nicholas Sparks

A great story will never get old. ~ Ja

Writers of the world, if you've got a story, I want to hear it. I promise it will follow me to my last breath. My soul will dance with pleasure, and it'll change the quality of all my waking hours. You will hearten me and brace me up for the hard days as they enter my life on the prowl. I reach for a story to save my own life. Always. It clears the way for me and makes me resistant to all the false promises signified by the ring of power. In every great story, I encounter a head-on collision with self and imagination. ~ Pat Conroy

You usually get one or the other, you get someone who knows how to tell a story but they don't necessarily know about light and camera and rhythm, or you get someone who can make beautiful images but they can't necessarily tell a great story. He[Mark Webb] does both and I think he's going to be one of the film-makers that our time is remembered for. ~ Joseph Gordon-Levitt

I had sort of had a 21st birthday when I was 17, 18 years old living in Japan. I had all of that stuff sort of happen earlier for me, which happens to a lot of people. My 21st birthday was just a little boring. Not a great story. ~ Sarah Wright

I'm definitely not your stereotypical actor: the loud, cackling type who strolls into a room and grabs everyone's attention with a great story. I've always been much more of a listener. ~ Emun Elliott

Aware of our deep failings, we pour contempt on our own hearts for wanting more. Oh, we long for intimacy and for adventure; we long to be the Beauty of some great story. But the desires set deep in our hearts seem like a luxury, granted only to those women who get their acts together. The message to the rest of us – whether from a driven culture or a driven church – is try harder. ~ Stasi Eldredge

People love to have lived a great story, but few people like the work it takes to make it happen. ~ Donald Miller

There was no possibility of redemption in his tale. There wasn't an iota of hope in it. But the truth is, life goes on and stories have to end, and yet not end - which is also one of the features of any great story. ~ Aruni Kashyap

Being in love is such a nice feeling,and to be able to see that feeling on-screen is just nice, especially when it's a great story. ~ Emma Roberts

But at some point it becomes obvious that, ultimately, the adventure of faith is the most sensible thing to do, and in fact the only thing worth doing. As Sam says toward the end of The Two Towers, no one remembers the tales in which the characters give up and turn back. Great and heroic deeds remain undone if no one leaps into the dark to do them. That's true when it comes to faith, too. You can't play a meaningful role in the great story by playing it safe. Once you hit the road, there is no going back to life as it was before. When Jesus asks His disciples if they will leave him to, Peter says, "Lord to whom will we go?" (verse 68). It's either walk with Jesus, unsafe as it seems sometimes, or go home. ~ Sarah Arthur

Look at the very people who are involved in this. They have popped up in other settings. The great story here for anybody willing to find it, write about it and explain it is this vast right-wing conspiracy that has been conspiring against my husband since the day he announced for president, ~ Hillary Clinton

It would have been a great story if Brooks had went out there and scored 21 points, ... That would have been great theater. But the reality of that is very difficult, as we know, in this league for any QB when defense is playing good. And the Ravens played well. ~ Herman Edwards

The fact that I was a believer, a Christian, everybody immediately thought this guy's a minister, he's so nice and, oh by the way, he can play a little bit. The other thing for me is being undersized. What a great story, what an overachiever, kind of like Rudy. ~ Mike Singletary

Desire never stops. Equilibrium is temporary. The self-revelation is never simple, and it cannot guarantee the hero a satisfying life from that day forward. since a great story is always a living thing, its ending is no more final and certain than any other part of the story. ~ John Truby

To tell a great story, you really do have to step through the box that the world has put around you; you have to see it. You have to see what the world has defined you as. And you have to refute it in language that the world will understand ... Repay the debt that kept you alive, you will make an art and you will take a leap. And, oh God, I hope you get all the way over to the other side. Because some of us don't. ~ Dorothy Allison

Stories? We all spend our lives telling them, about this, about that, about people ... But some? Some stories are so good we wish they'd never end. They're so gripping that we'll go without sleep just to see a little bit more. Some stories bring us laughter and sometimes they bring us tears ... but isn't that what a great story does? Makes you feel? Stories that are so powerful ... they really are with us forever. ~ Dustin Hoffman

The story he [Todd Willingham] told me was this: He woke up to a fire. He ran out of the house and couldn't run back in to save his children, and that was enough to get me interested ... There's a writer in me that's like, ... this is a great story ... I have a good friend, who was my neighbor at the time, and I told her about it ... She had been a reporter, and she was like, "Let's go investigate it." ~ Elizabeth Gilbert

I never would rule out a great character or a great story. I don't care what the forum is. If I get to tell a story that I'm excited about, I'm in. ~ Katherine Heigl

I'm an optimist; I always hope that each new script is going to be a great story. ~ Viggo Mortensen

You want to tell a great story. You want these characters to become part of people's lives. And then, hopefully, that generates discussion. ~ Todd Lieberman

The word of the Eucharist makes us part of the great story of our salvation. Our little stories are lifted up into God's great story and there given their unique place. The word lifts us up and makes us see that our daily, ordinary lives are, in fact, sacred lives that play a necessary role in the fulfillment of God's promises. ~ Henri J.M. Nouwen

I think that Poe is so resonant because he represents that part of us that is in misery or sorrowful or wants to explore the darkness. He wrote a great story called 'The Imp of the Perverse' about the instinct towards self-destruction. Poe is the godfather of Goth literature and that whole movement. ~ John Cusack

Whether we like it or not, life has a lot of drama and pain. But God is writing a great story. Are we going to let Him? Are we going to trust Him? ~ Beth Moore

'I Am Number Four' is a great story about a guy who's trying to find his destiny and figure out who he is and his identity. ~ Alex Pettyfer

People want to join a great story. If you want to lead, tell one with your life. ~ Donald Miller

Maggie shook her head. I'm not calm, I'm just ... hesitant. It's like, I always think pretty soon my life will be this great story, as soon as it starts. ~ Jodi Lynn Anderson

I like Texas and Texans. In Texas, everything is bigger. When Texans win, they win big. And when they lose, it's spectacular.
If you really want to learn the attitude of how to handle risk, losing and failure, go to San Antonio and visit the Alamo. The Alamo is a great story of brave people who chose to fight, knowing there was no hope of success against overwhelming odds. They chose to die instead of surrendering. It's an inspiring story worthy of study; nonetheless, it's still a tragic military defeat. They got their butts kicked. A failure if you will. They lost. So how do Texans handle failure? They still shout, "Remember the Alamo!"
That's why I like Texans so much. They took a great failure and turned it into a tourist destination that makes them millions.
Texans don't bury their failures. They get inspired by them. They take their failures and turn them into rallying cries. Failure inspires Texans to become winners. But that formula is not just the formula for Texans. It is formula for all winners. ~ Robert T. Kiyosaki

Scripture is, at its heart, the great story that we sing in order not just to learn it with our heads but to become part of it through and through, the story that in turn becomes part of us. ~ N. T. Wright

A lie is just a great story that someone ruined with the truth. ~ Barney Stinson

My favorite novels allow me to imagine the characters afterward and what happened, and that I've witnessed a really great story, where the world goes on. ~ J.H. Wyman

My family were great story-tellers. My mum was one of 12 and they were all fighting to tell stories. You have to tell a good tale or no one is going to listen. You have to make it entertaining and interesting. That's how I learned to tell stories. ~ Denise Mina

Remember, we are all part of a great story that is really about God, not us. He is the number one character (read: winner), and we are all secondary (read: losers). ~ Daniel Hochhalter

Once upon a time, an author created a great story. ~ Erik Dean

Recreation in the open is of the finest grade. The moral benefits are all positive. The individual with any soul cannot live long in the presence of towering mountains or sweeping plains without getting a little of the high moral standard of Nature infused into his being ... with eyes opened, the great story of the Earth's forming, the history of a tree, the life of a flower or the activities of some small animal will all unfold themselves to the recreationist ... ~ Arthur Carhart

Future generations will look back at the time we are living in now. The kind of future they look from, and the story they tell about our period, will be shaped by choices we make in our lifetimes. The most telling choice of all may well be the story we live from and see ourselves participating in. It sets the context of our lives in a way that influences all our other decisions.

In choosing our story, we not only cast our vote of influence over the kind of world future generations inherit, but we also affect our own lives in the here and now. When we find a good story and fully give ourselves to it, that story can act through us, breathing new life into everything we do. When we move in a direction that touches our heart, we add to the momentum of deeper purpose that makes us feel more alive. A great story and a satisfying life share a vital element: a compelling plot that moves toward meaningful goals, where what is at stake is far larger than our personal gains and losses. The Great Turning is such a story. ~ Joanna Macy And Chris Johnstone

Social media is social. We're looking to touch one heart at a time. With one great story at a time. ~ Shawn Amos

I can forgive almost any crime if a great story is left in its wake. ~ Pat Conroy

A good story is one liked. A great story is one that challenges thought, defiant and gets mouths talking. ~ Veronica Purcell

You can have a bunch of great actors in a film, but if you don't have anyone telling a great story, it's a moot point. ~ Sarah Gadon

For me the thing that signals a great story is what we might call its autonomy, the fact that it detaches itself from its author like a soap bubble blown from a clay pipe. ~ Julio Cortazar

As an actor, whatever I get the opportunity to do, if it has a good story then I'm in. I thought 'Dead End' had a great story; 'Nightmare on Elm Street,' of course, was probably the first real horror film I was in. ~ Lin Shaye

Some newspaper stories can be presented in entertaining ways; they can make you laugh; they can make you weep. But they are not charged with providing exaltation or fantasy. In the most entertained nation in the history of the world, newspapers exist to provide the citizenry with truth. Sometimes the truth can have a moral point. Sometimes the truth is painful. Sometimes the truth is banal. But it has to be true. It must have a granitelike foundation in fact. The mere stacking of facts is not, of course, enough. The facts must be organized into a coherent whole. They must tell a story. And the great story usually tells us something larger than the mere facts, something about what novelists and philosophers have called, perhaps too grandly, the human condition. ~ Pete Hamill

If you worship money and things - if they are where you tap real meaning in life - then you will never have enough. Never feel you have enough. It's the truth. Worship your own body and beauty and sexual allure and you will always feel ugly, and when time and age start showing, you will die a million deaths before they finally plant you. On one level, we all know this stuff already - it's been codified as myths, proverbs, clichés, bromides, epigrams, parables: the skeleton of every great story. The trick is keeping the truth up-front in daily consciousness. Worship power - you will feel weak and afraid, and you will need ever more power over others to keep the fear at bay. Worship your intellect, being seen as smart - you will end up feeling stupid, a fraud, always on the verge of being found out. And so on. ~ David Foster Wallace

Christians must return to the great story that has its fulfillment in life after death, so we may live and die well in the light of our extraordinary hope that enables us to embrace the ordinary lives God gives us here and now. ~ Michael Horton

The best stories (whether book or movie) involve redemption. If you are someone who believes you have made too many mistakes or your life has been too "bad" for God to want you, think of it this way: God, the greatest story teller, has not yet finished your story, and He can make it a really great story by including a really great redemption. All of us, in truth, need a really great redemption, which means, through Jesus, all of us have a really great story. ~ Donna E. Lane

Every Great Story deserves a Great Ending and
'The Dark Knight Rises' is our Attempt to give that GREAT story, a GREAT ENDING. ~ Christopher Nolan

'Junkhearts' is a great story. ~ John Boyega

Today is your wright-time. Anything worth writing will be, or has been written already. A great story chooses its writer lest no wright should boast. Just write! If you don't, you will come right in contact with your thoughts someplace soon. ~ Amah Lambert

Fantasy is easy, all you have to do is this. Here's an interesting culture, here's another interesting culture. What would happen if you put these two cultures in the same world? From there all you have to answer for the reader is, why are these two cultures fighting? And more importantly, why should the reader care? If you can do that you will have a great story on your hands. ~ Shane Porteous

If the great story of the last century was the conflict among various political ideologies-communism, fascism and democracy-then the great narrative of this century will be the changes wrought by astonishing scientific breakthroughs ~ Cynthia Tucker

When life gives you the gift of a great story, to not partake in the telling of that story would be a crime against humanity. ~ A.D. Posey

I was inspired to write Countdown 'til Daddy Comes Home when I searched for books to help my 4 year daughter cope with her father deploying to Afghanistan and found nothing that quite fit our situation. My book is not only a great story for kids it has real suggestions for parents on how to keep you family connected during deployments or frequent business travel. ~ Kristin Ayyar

You know, I think Marco Rubio would be a spectacular candidate for vice president. I think he would energize the country. I think he has a great story. He's bright. He's articulate. ~ Mario Diaz-Balart

readers are saying;
"A great story about a fan's love for 'all things sport' ..."
" Great read. Must buy as a stocking stuffer."
"A great piece of work ~ Keith Guernsey

The advance of freedom is the great story of our time ~ George W. Bush

Most new writers think it's easy to write for children, but it's not. You have to get in a beginning, middle and end, tell a great story, write well, not be condescending-all in a few pages. ~ Andrea Brown

To have the beginning of a truly great story, you need to have a character you're completely and utterly obsessed with. Without obsession, to the point of a maddening addiction,there's no point to continue. ~ Jennifer Salaiz

Great story tellers are great liars. None of those complex characters, events and settings are anything but the figments of their own imaginations ~ Bangambiki Habyarimana

No story is more beautiful than the Gospel, even though it is a story full of pain and nails and hate and blood and sin and murder and betrayal and forsakenness and unimaginable agony and death. It is the story of what happens to the most beautiful thing, Perfect Love, when it enters our world: it comes to a Cross, to the crossroad between good and evil. All our most beautiful stories are like the Gospel: they are tragedies first, and then comedies; they are crosses and then crowns. They are crosses because they are conflicts between good and evil. That is the fundamental plot of every great story. To say "that story is beautiful" means "that story resembles the Gospel." If you are bored by the Gospel, that puts no black eye on the Gospel, but on you. Most likely, it means you have never listened to it. You must have heard it, but hearing is far from the same thing as listening ... ~ Peter Kreeft

All the great story lines are great practical jokes that people fall for over and over again. ~ Kurt Vonnegut

And as He spoke, He no longer looked to them like a lion; but the things that began to happen after that were so great and beautiful that I cannot write them. And for us this the end of all the stories, and we can most truly say that they all lived happily ever after. But for them it was only the beginning of the real story. All their life in this world and all their adventures in Narnia had only been the cover and the title page: now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story which no one on earth has read: which goes on for ever: in which every chapter is better than the one before. ~ C.S. Lewis

There's actually a big difference between story and character. A great story doesn't make a great movie. A great script, which defines its moments and characters can become a great movie. You can make a movie that makes a lot of money and it may or may not have great story or great characters. ~ Kevin Costner

America is a great story and there is a river on every page of it. ~ Charles Kuralt

Those who remember only that the Roosevelts served hot dogs to the royals will be fascinated by this well-researched account of an historic and ennobling relationship - a great story! ~ James MacGregor Burns

Music is, by far, the best art. Nothing even comes close. It's so immediate and emotional. In writing, maybe ninety percent of it is the unconscious and ten percent is control. In music, I think it's probably more like ninety-nine percent the unconscious. It's just a beautiful thing happening through you. And so, too, is writing a great story. ~ T.C. Boyle

Research is so vital to a great story. Know what you're writing about! ~ Beem Weeks

Go for it. It will make a great story. ~ Gina Greenlee

I put my heart and soul into my book - great story and awesome characters ... yet people are trying to pull me down. ~ Nick Simmons

I've definitely been spoilt. Every movie I've done, it's always the same criteria: finding a great story, and finding a great part to play. ~ Alden Ehrenreich

From my first day inside, I recognized that this odd coupling-housing leprosy patients with federal convicts- would make a great story ~ Neil W. White III

People should go see 'Premium' because it's a great story about love and the person who shaped us as the people we eventually become. There are a bunch of laughs as well as poignant thinking moments. It's a story about the human experience, and so many people can relate to it. Plus we need the money! ~ Dorian Missick

People love gossip because it's slightly removed from actuality. It's a very literary thing ... You can hear a great story, and it turns out that it's largely not true. Fiction writing is like gossip. It's not malicious gossip, but it's gossip. ~ Lorrie Moore

After you hear even the shortest great story, it should fill you with a little bit of fear. ~ Chuck Palahniuk

God loves a great story, and all of us who know Him will recall and celebrate and continue to live in that story for all eternity. ~ Randy Alcorn

Writers are given one great story to tell their story. I'm telling my story as a political document. ~ Larry Kramer

If someone writes a great story, people praise the author, not the pen. People don't say, 'Oh what an incredible pen ... where can I get a pen like this so I can write great stories?' Well, I am just a pen in the hands of the Lord. He is the author. All praise should go to him. ~ Keith Green