Top 100 A Good Story Quotes
#1. Books are a weird collaboration between author and reader: You trust me to tell a good story, and I trust you to bring it to good life in your mind.
John Green
#2. Can I ask what you're reading?" ... She turned the book so the cover faced me. Wuthering Heights. "Have you read it?" She said. I nodded. I could feel the pulsating beat of my heart behind my eyes. "It's a sad story." "Sad stories make good books," She said. "They do.
Khaled Hosseini
#3. You have very short travel blogs, and I think there's a split among travel writers: the service-oriented writers will say, 'Well, the reader wants to read about his trip, not yours.' Whereas I say, the reader just wants to read a good story and to maybe learn something.
Tim Cahill
#4. I have a musical called Goodbye and Good Luck, based on a Grace Paley short story. I also have King Island Christmas, and there are 20 different productions of it this year.
David Friedman
#5. What counts in a good story is the person inside. Keep it simple.
Paulo Coelho
#6. A good story, well told, makes you realize you were yearning for something you had no name for, something you didn't even know you wanted.
F.S. Michaels
#7. I think the genre of comics sometimes overtakes the medium, and people assume that they are kind of frivolous. If you have a good, strong story teller, they can be as affecting as any character in literature. Period.
Chip Kidd
#8. She ate toast in bed, then reread a favorite book, taking comfort from a story where she knew the outcome would be good and just and right.
Sarah Mayberry
#9. It's like reading a good book. The kind where you don't want to skip pages to see what happens at the end. Each moment is a story in itself.
Renee Carlino
#10. Puzzles are like songs - A good puzzle can give you all the pleasure of being duped that a mystery story can. It has surface innocence, surprise, the revelation of a concealed meaning, and the catharsis of solution.
Stephen Sondheim
#11. Women basically want the same thing - a good passionate story, a great fantasy - and for our partners to do the laundry and the washing up.
E.L. James
#13. When I write, I'm looking to turn you on and tell a good story. No more, no less. No lofty goals here.
Kirsten McCurran
#14. I love nonfiction the most. It's hard to find a good nonfiction story, and that's why I'm not as prolific, I guess, as a lot of people. They're hard to find. I love the nonfiction writer Ben Macintyre. I think he's terrific at the form of telling a story in a cinematic way.
Robert Kurson
#15. You shouldn't whitewash it. He's good at spin, but he also has a remarkable story, and I'd like to see that it's all told truthfully.
Walter Isaacson
#16. In a sense, the artwork is the most important thing in getting somebody to buy a book. The person probably won't buy a book if he doesn't like the artwork. Once you buy it for the artwork, you hope that the story will also be good.
Stan Lee
#18. Nothing good about this but it's title. A priggish little yarn. And Hidden Riches is not a story
it's a machine. It creaks. It never made me forget for one instant that it was a story. Hence it isn't a story.
L.M. Montgomery
#19. Our doubts are traitors and make us
lose the good we oft might win, by fearing to attempt. In other words, a
wish is a good place to start but then you have to get off your butt and make it
happen. You have to pick up a quill and write your own damn story. (Mimi Wallingford)
Suzanne Selfors
#20. Rwanda really did take very strong steps towards development. I mean, this place is unrecognizable. There's a very good management of economy and resources - it's a success story, and that's great.
Mo Ibrahim
#21. My favorite roles usually have to do with the story, if it's a good story I usually enjoy doing the character.
Beau Bridges
#22. We don't feel pressure of, 'Let's make this really raunchy.' It's more about making a good story, which is 10 times harder. The raunchy stuff's really easy for us.
Matt Stone
#23. I guess that's the story of life: what you most fear never happens, but what you most yearn for never happens either. This is the difference between life and fiction. I suppose it's a good trade-off. But I'm not sure.
Philip K. Dick
#24. There is nothing more incredible and moving and appealing than good music, and it cannot always be reduced to a story, to exposition. It's so much more abstract and brilliant.
Sufjan Stevens
#25. Character is always my driving force. And to tell a good story and to provide an entertaining read.
Monica Ali
#26. I love intricate plotting and exciting twists, but I realize more that people enjoy a good story in a simple, focused way.
Evan Daugherty
#27. Right now I just want to play good roles, and if the role happens to be a gay man, that's not of any import other than, 'Is it a good story? Does it say something that's interesting?'
Chris Pine
#28. A good short-story writer has an instinct for sketching in just enough background to ground the specific story.
Lynn Abbey
#29. It's all about story and character with me, and I don't care if the job is on daytime or prime time or the web. Hey, give me a good character and someone to listen, and I'll do my acting on a street corner.
Justin Hartley
#30. I'd like to be in anything that tells a good story and has an interesting character.
John Boyega
#32. Digital-Original publishing embraces the non-conventional and genre-busting story. It allows me to share good stories with readers who will enjoy them, and at a reasonable price.
Michael A. Stackpole
#33. I began to be impressed by what made a good book-how you needed to have a sensible story, a plot that developed, with a beginning, a middle, and an end that would tie everything together.
Dorothy Fields
#34. I have a great little camera, and I had a theory that if the story is interesting, it doesn't matter what medium you shoot it on. You just have to make a good film.
Tamra Davis
#35. Given that I don't know anything, when I am making up stories about the future, why not make it a good story instead of a scary one?
Sharon Weil
#36. I've done so many movies with first-time directors, and honestly I just go with gut instinct. People that usually can tell me a good story, and talk to me about why the movie is the movie they want to make. I just go with my gut.
Neal H. Moritz
#37. It's so pretentious, but I believe that with comedy, if you have a good story, 90% of it is casting. Once you get the guys and gals in there, it's pretty easy to make a funny movie.
Matt Walsh
#38. It's never too late to tell a good story, to create a new myth that rouses us from our intoxicated slumber, that lifts us above the din of confusion and arms us against the weapons of mass distraction.
Derek Rydall
#39. A good story feels both surprising and inevitable, fresh and familiar.
Adam Johnson
#40. If a good editor will let me tell my story with the right artist, I'm happy.
Brian K. Vaughan
#41. Everybody loves a good story, but good storytelling doesn't come easy to everybody. It's a skill that takes a lifetime to master. So study the great stories and then go find some of your own. Your stories will get better the more you tell them.
Austin Kleon
#42. Personally, I see little distinction between an artistic mentality and criminality. You couldn't possibly create a compelling story without some wickedness or some fascination with the disgusting. Being good is a hindrance to a writer.
Russell Smith
#44. Good journalism is crucial. Good journalism isn't easy so I think it's less about what story and more about the layers and context that need to be explored in the story. That's one of the reasons why I'm excited to be a part of CNN. This is the kind of place that you can do that.
George Stroumboulopoulos
#45. I'm not a risk taker. But astronauts are professionals, so you get out on the field and play ball. I tried to take it in stride because that's what I had to do to get into space. That's where I belong, and I'm pretty good at it.
Story Musgrave
#46. I think it is nice for people to appreciate a slow-burning, beautiful story that makes you feel good when it is over.
Emily Blunt
#47. You set out to tell a good story. You don't do it because there is a deep message involved because the movie is almost always bad when you do that.
John Lee Hancock
#48. I will always have a soft spot for 'East of the Sun, West of the Moon,' which I discovered just at the age when I was beginning to enjoy the darkness in fairy tales but still wanted a story where the good guys win.
Genevieve Valentine
#49. All my life I thought that the story was over when the hero and heroine were safely engaged
after all, what's good enough for Jane Austen ought to be good enough for anyone. But it's a lie. The story is about to begin, and every day will be a new piece of the plot.
Mary Ann Shaffer
#50. They only the victory win,
Who have fought the good fight and have vanquished the demon that tempts us within;
Who have held to their faith unseduced by the prize that the world holds on high;
Who have dared for a high cause to suffer, resist, fight
if need be, to die.
William Wetmore Story
#51. The Song is a gritty, realistic, and powerful film. The acting and production quality are excellent, and the story is captivating. Although not for children, the story is a good reminder to adults of what really matters!
Alex Kendrick
#52. I grew up reading 19th-century novels and late Victorian children's books, so I try for a good story full of coincidence and error, landscape and weather. However, the world was radically changed during my lifetime, and I tell of that battering as best I can.
Fanny Howe
#53. O good Horatio, what a wounded name,
Things standing thus unknown, shall live behind me!
If thou didst ever hold me in thy heart
Absent thee from felicity awhile,
And in this harsh world draw thy breath in pain,
To tell my story ...
O, I die, Horatio;
William Shakespeare
#54. At work, he pretended every woman customer was a floozy with a hard-luck story who only needed a good slapping.
Tim Dorsey
#55. You can't ask for much more than that - a good woman and a story to tell.
David Levithan
#56. Life on earth is such a good story you cannot afford to miss the beginning ... Beneath our superficial differences we are all of us walking communities of bacteria. The world shimmers, a pointillist landscape made of tiny living beings.
Lynn Margulis
#58. I have a very healthy dose of self-loathing. But I think we all have a past of being whatever our story was, of feeling not good enough. It can propel you to work harder and do more, but it can also be a tremendous trap, and you can't see beyond it.
Kim Cattrall
#59. Of course I want my films to look really good, but every single element is chosen for a reason. It's telling something in the story.
Pedro Almodovar
#60. Nothing in recent years, on television or anywhere else, has improved on a good story that begins "Once upon a time ... "
William Bennett
#61. What I love about 'The Walking Dead' is it's a human story, which is to me what makes the comic book so good, but once you jump from the pages of the book to the screen, the gore and the zombies have to look great.
Scott Ian
#62. If you create a good story that has a lot of story value ... I think audiences like that. It's why they stick with the same TV show over and over.
Robert Rodriguez
#63. I always give money to a sidewalk con if the story is a good one, even if I don't believe a word of it. Art deserves to get paid.
Luc Sante
#64. The lamps were lit, and a good fire crackled in the great stone fireplace. There was a discreet chink of china, the brightness of silver teapot and muffin cover, the comforting smell mingled of steaming hot water, toast and a little sweet tobacco.
Susan Hill
#65. The kind of juvenile story I like best to write
and read, too, for the matter of that
is a good, jolly one, "art for art's sake," or rather "fun for fun's sake," with no insidious moral hidden away in it like a pill in a spoonful of jam!
L.M. Montgomery
#66. Most people do a good deal of whatever they do motivated by love. For me, few stories are truly complete without it.
Sara Sheridan
#68. One thing I've learned about the press is that they're always hungry for a good story, and the more sensational the better. It's in the nature of the job, and I understand that. The point is that if you are a little different, or a little outrageous,
Donald J. Trump
#69. A bad short story or novel or poem leaves one comparatively calm because it does not exist, unless it gets a fake prestige throughbeing mistaken for good work. It is essentially negative, it is something that has not come through. But over bad criticism one has a sense of real calamity.
Rebecca West
#70. if you want to convince children of the power of books, don't tell them stories are good. Tell them a good story.
Roger Sutton
#71. About happy endings. Folk like a story to finish well. Doesn't matter if that's true to life or not. Helps to hear about folk being content. About good folk getting what they deserve. While you're listening you can believe, for a bit, that you're good too. Worth a happy ending.
Juliet Marillier
#72. I didn't become a good writer until I learned how to rewrite. And I don't just mean fixing spelling and adding a comma. I rewrite each of my books five or six times, and each time I change huge portions of the story.
Louis Sachar
#73. My only want and wish, really, was to tell a good story. I wanted to do good work, tell a good story, and give the character a voice. Those were my only expectations.
Uzo Aduba
#74. I was a better writer when I was teaching. I was constantly going over the basics and constantly reminding myself, as I reminded my students, what made a good story, a good poem.
Gil Scott-Heron
#75. That is the power of a good story. It can encourage you, it can make you laugh, it can bring you joy. It will make you think, it will tap innto your hidden emotions, and it can make you cry. The power of a story can also bring about healing, give you peace, and change your life! (p.15)
Jeff Dixon
#76. I don't think I have what it takes to make a good action game. I think I'm better at telling a story.
Hironobu Sakaguchi
#77. But have you ever heard a story in which the evil person triumphs at the end?"
The boy thought for a while before replying.
"No," he said, "but before they lose, they harm the good people. That is what I am afraid of.
Nadeem Aslam
#78. The whole Haley-Nathan marriage deal was a pretty good twist huh? I hope we got all of you with it. That particular story line even suprised me when I read it, it's a good one and it'll provide for some good stories to come.
James Lafferty
#79. When we've decided to tell the truth in a story, we should tell good, strong versions of it, proper versions that kids can do something with.
Celine Kiernan
#80. When you have a memorable story about who you are and what your mission is, your success no longer depends on how experienced you are or how many degrees you have or who you know. A good story transcends boundaries, breaks barriers, and opens doors.
Blake Mycoskie
#81. Audiences love both the feeling part (reliving the life) and the thinking part (figuring out the puzzle) of a story. Every good story has both.
John Truby
#82. Publicity is absolutely critical. A good PR story is infinitely more effective than a front page ad.
Richard Branson
#83. When you're a storyteller, part of the process of storytelling is the kind of communion you form with the audience to whom you're telling your story. If some segment of the audience doesn't like that story, it doesn't feel good.
Carlton Cuse
#84. A good writer should draw the reader in by starting in the middle of the story with a hook, then go back and fill in what happened before the hook. Once you have the reader hooked, you can write whatever you want as you slowly reel them in.
Roland Smith
#85. In the hands of vicious men, a mob will do anything. But under good leaders it's quite a different story.
Euripides
#86. Everybody loves a good sob story, so long as it's not their story.
I don't know why. I'm not sure if people honestly care about other people or they just want a way to confirm that they've got it better than someone else.
John David Anderson
#87. Queer Eye for the Straight Guy is a form of service journalism. To be successful, I think it has to be a combination of a good story, it has to be funny, and it also needs to be packed with useful information.
Ted Allen
#88. Good stories flow like honey. Bad stories stick in the craw. A bad story? One that cannot be absorbed on the first time of reading.
Arthur Christiansen
#89. It is the consistency of the information that matters for a good story, not its completeness.
Daniel Kahneman
#90. The gospel is good news - a message to be proclaimed, a truth to be taught, a word to be spoken, and a story to be told.
Tim Chester
#91. Self-trust is so important. When you launch on a story, make your neck loose, feel free, good-natured. And be lazy. Feel that you are going to throw it away. Try writing utterly unplanned stories and see what comes out.
Brenda Ueland
#92. A good story conveys a message that strengthens our values.
Ronald R. Cooke
#93. I don't know what makes a good feature story. I've always assumed that if it was a story that interested or amused me, that it would have the same impact on other people.
Charles Kuralt
#94. That's the strange thing about a good story. No pleasure if you can't share it.
Carsten Jensen
#95. If you're in a country and you want to learn about it, it's a good idea to go and found out what they have to say for themselves; you might want to write a good story about it, when they're not looking.
Marion Davies
#96. It is my writing dilemma. The world of spying is my genre. My struggle is to demystify, to de-romanticise the spook world, but at the same time harness it as a good story.
John Le Carre
#97. Uncertainty is as good a way as any to kill a story.
Sidney Zion
#98. I have people constantly come up to me telling me that I have written their life. When I wrote the story I thought it was a pretty good story but I had no idea that many people felt like that.
Blackie
#99. A good book ought to have something simple about it. And, like Eve, it ought to come from somewhere near the third rib: there ought to be a heart beating in it. A story that's all forehead doesn't amount to much.
Christopher Morley
#100. I've been reading tabloids since I was nine. I love a good story.
Lana Del Rey
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