Tell My Story Quotes

#1. When I make movies, I don't ever go out there to please anyone other than myself. I never try to make a film for the masses. I just try to tell my story.

Lee Daniels

#2. I just know that when I go onstage, I give everything I have, not only my feet, not only my legs, not only my body. I try to tell a story. Sometimes I am able to cry because I feel like it. Sometimes I am able to love because I feel like it.

Sylvie Guillem

#3. 'Flash Forward' was one of the big heartbreaks of my career. It was just this very frustrating experience. If we'd been allowed to tell the story we wanted to tell, I don't know that it would've been more successful or not. There's no way to know.

David S.Goyer

#4. If a good editor will let me tell my story with the right artist, I'm happy.

Brian K. Vaughan

#5. But I have forgotten to tell you how I came into the world, and am telling you my father's story instead of my own. You seem to like hearing about it though, and you can't understand one without the other.

Thomas Hughes

#6. I do like playing the darker side of life but as much as the lighter side as well. They all resonate out of the same place, which is that everyone has a story to tell. Depending on their upbringing and their history, it determines who they are as an adult. My job is to take the role from there.

Michael Eklund

#7. I can only tell my story, what you believe is up to you.

Yann Martel

#8. I never plan my novels because if I know what is going to happen, it bores me rigid. I let the story tell itself.

James Herbert

#9. Whenever I go to New York or any European country, they say: 'Nawal, why don't you get a facelift?' I tell them, 'I am proud of my wrinkles. Every wrinkle on my face tells the story of my life. Why should I hide my age?'

Nawal El Saadawi

#10. When I write my book, Ill tell the real story of Cheryl

Louis Walsh

#11. I always choose my projects for the script or what the director want to tell with that story. And if I like the story.

Elena Anaya

#12. I don't want you to write about what you know, because you don't know anything. I don't want to hear about your boyfriend or your grandma ... I'm getting a little tired of 'my life story as fiction'. Please don't tell me about your little life - is there nothing larger? More important?

Toni Morrison

#13. My approach is so simple; every song I sing, every story I tell, every move I make, must move the audience to laughter, tears, or inspiration. Otherwise, why do it? It's the communication.

John Davidson

#14. For a long time, I was portrayed as the Osama bin Laden of the Internet, and I really wanted to be able to tell my side of the story. I wanted to be able to explain exactly what I did and what I didn't do to people who thought they knew me.

Kevin Mitnick

#15. I cannot tell my story without reaching a long way back.

Hermann Hesse

#16. All of these lines across my face, tell you the story of who I am. So many stories of where I've been and how I got to where I am.

Brandi Carlile

#17. My friend, I am going to tell you the story of my life, as you wish; and if it were only the story of my life I think I would not tell it; for what is one man that he should make much of his winters, even when they bend him like a heavy snow?

Black Elk

#18. Many people tell me that they don 't know what to feel when they finish one of my books because the story was dark, or complicated, or strange. But while they were reading it, they were inside my world and they were happy. That's good.

Haruki Murakami

#19. To me and my kind life itself is a story and we have to tell it in stories - that is the way it falls.

Rumer Godden

#20. My dad used to open up photo albums and stuff and you'd have to tell a story about the picture but you couldn't tell the truth so you had to make up a story about whatever you were looking at. He really taught us how to lie.

Sara Quin

#21. I have been sent three or four scripts for television series, but there wasn't anything I really wanted to do. I want to tell a good story, whether it's a TV show, a movie, whatever. That's really my No. 1 criteria.

Jorge Garcia

#22. My mother talked about the stories I used to spin as a child of three, before I started school. I would tell this story about what school I went to and what uniform I wore and who I talked to at lunchtime and what I ate, and my mother was like, 'This girl does not even go to school.'

Lupita Nyong'o

#23. Who am I to stop everybody just to tell my stupid story? It's presumptuous.

Brendan Benson

#24. I learned, when I look in the mirror and tell my story, that I should be myself and not peep whatever everybody is doing.

Kendrick Lamar

#25. The only thing of value I have in this life is my ability to tell a story, whether in print, orating, writing it down or having people acting it out. That's why I'm always hoping society never collapses because the first ones to go will be entertainers.

Kevin Smith

#26. I did not look like my story. I would respond by saying that none of us really do; it is impossible to tell, from a single glance, the journeys someone has traveled, the experiences that have made them who they are.

Steve Pemberton

#27. What I'm hoping to do though is to ground my extrapolations in specificity, and to make sure that the story I tell is deliberately and honestly told.

Paolo Bacigalupi

#28. And now, without having wearied my friends, I hope, with detailed scientific accounts, theories, or deductions, I will only say that I have endeavoured to tell just the story of the adventure itself.

Joshua Slocum

#29. I used to tell my three younger siblings stories because that was my household chore, and I told long stories in installments because it was easier and more fun than making up a new story every night. I loved it.

Kerry Greenwood

#30. I compromised my ability to tell my story, at the most basic level.

Joyce Maynard

#31. You need to tell me what's going on. Tell me something, babe. I can't do this anymore, this sick twisted worrying, I need more of the story." The sad smile he offered me pulled at my insides, "I don't want half of you, or bits and pieces, baby. I bloody want all of you.

Christine Zolendz

#32. I'm very conscious that I'm an entertainer. Something like 73 percent of my readers are college graduates, so you can't condescend to people. You've got to tell them a story that they will be willing to pay money to read.

James Patterson

#33. And so, when I was a young writer I always worked hard on imagery, and I knew that the roots of imagery were the senses - and that if my readers could feel, taste and see what I was talking about, I would be able to tell them a story.

Adriana Trigiani

#34. As a historian, what I trust is my ability to take a mass of information and tell a story shaped around it.

Doris Kearns Goodwin

#35. My filmmaking background has really just been making movies with my friends since I was 12 years old. That's how I feel I learned how to tell a story visually, by just going out with a video camera and making movies with my friends and family.

Rian Johnson

#36. I try not to think too much about where my voice comes from. I'm channeling characters and emotion to come up with beautiful words that tell a story.

Gin Wigmore

#37. A wise man (or the first comedian in history) once said, "If you wish to make God laugh, tell him your plans." This is why during praying, I occasionally slip in my business plans. If there were an internet of somekind in heaven, my story would've been forwarded to everyone even before lunch break.

Isman H. Suryaman

#38. My dad has a great expression. He always says, 'Tell me a fact and I'll learn, tell me the truth and I believe, but tell me a story, and it will live in my heart forever.' Interestingly enough now, my dad's story is going to be in Canton and hopefully that will live forever, too.

Steve Sabol

#39. I don't want to tell what the songs are about for me, because then people can't decide for themselves, which is why I write; it's for you to find your own meaning in. For me it's my story, for someone else it's theirs; if I tell exactly what it means, then it's only my story.

Brian Fallon

#40. Now will I rehearse before you a very ancient Breton Lay. As the tale was told to me, so, in turn, will I tell it over again, to the best of my art and knowledge. Hearken now to my story, its why and its reason.

Marie De France

#41. I have been the subject of ridicule. People talk about me and they don't know me and this is an opportunity to tell my story ... to have my voice and to set the record straight.

Amber Frey

#42. This is not the story of my marriage. I cannot tell that story: I cannot take hold of, or lay out for anyone, the many swamps and grasses and pockets of fresh air and dank air that have gone over us.

Elizabeth Strout

#43. I just want to make sure I could tell my story the way I want to tell it. I just want to own my truth.

Michael Sam

#44. My boyfriend asked me to tell a story without my hands, and I couldn't talk.

Tracy Spiridakos

#45. In my work, I just want to tell a story and help people go on a journey. I'm glad any fans that I do have, and I'm usually not aware of it until I get out there or read a message board. I want to thank everyone who follows my work.

Kenny Johnson

#46. No one has ever been able to control his thinking, although people may tell the story of how they have. I don't let go of my thoughts-I meet them with understanding. Then they let go of me.

Byron Katie

#47. I think that all I can do is try and keep myself stress-free and away from any type of result-orientated thinking, and go and do my work and tell a story.

Shaun Sipos

#48. That's why I'm compelled to tell this story - don't we all have one secret that has shaped us we are burning to reveal? - to convince myself that I'm entitled to my own life. (pg 4)

Jill Bialosky

#49. He was my father. I own half his genes, and all of his history. Believe this: the mistakes are part of the story. I am born of a man who believed he could tell nothing but the truth, while he set down for all time the Poisonwood Bible.

Barbara Kingsolver

#50. Next time I get sick, you can tell that to me. You can be my girl in the mountains."
"Okay", I say."I'll be your mountain girl and take care of you.

Gayle Forman

#51. I make the surprised O with my mouth, although I am not really that surprised. It was the kind of story that grownups tell children to complicate a thing when they could just tell you the thing itself, much faster.

Claire King

#52. To tell my story, to touch lives.

Emmanuel Jal

#53. If I can tell my story, and help anybody else in the interim, then that's icing on the cake.

Jeff Conaway

#54. I want to know about my mom. And other stuff. I want to know the whole story, good or bad."
"Me, too," said Gazzy. "I want to find my parents so I can tell'm what total scuzzes they are. Like, 'Hi, mom and dad, you're such scum!

James Patterson

#55. Solomon Northup is one of the most remarkable people I've ever encountered in my life; one of the most amazing stories I have ever been in any kind of contact with. To not tell that story would have been disgraceful, in my opinion.

Chiwetel Ejiofor

#56. I'm absolutely flooded with a raucous energy to get out into the world and tell my story again. I feel like this is spring. After a period of shriveling, out come the leaves.

David Gray

#57. Sugar, that's what they always say. Ya know, everybody wantz to tell stories but they just end up makin' their own story with me to tell to someone else. I haven't heard any stories but I bet I'm in a lot. You don't know it now, but it costs money for my stories.

Chad Faries

#58. Which story do you want to hear my child?"he picked him up and made him sit on his lap.
"Tell us the story of that fairy who lived in a house of wafers,had a garden of chocolate trees and a pond full of goldfishes,"the child wrapped his arms around his shoulder.

Chitralekha Paul

#59. When my father made 'Jean de Florette' and 'Manon des Sources' back to back, everybody said, 'Why two movies?' But you need two movies to show how criminality evolves, and to tell the story: You can't show a man in love with so many women in one big biopic.

Thomas Langmann

#60. I'm a very traditional person. The tattoos are about my grandmother dying and they tell the story about my mother and father, my brothers and my sister, my kids. It's pretty much a family tree on my arm with my life in football too.

Timothy F. Cahill

#61. When I was a boy, my mother would tell me that one of the best things in life is the knowledge that our story isn't over yet. Our story may have come to a close, but your story is still yet to be told.
Make it a story worthy of you

Renee Ahdieh

#62. I think my books talk about kids learning to like and respect themselves and each other. You can't write a message book; you just tell the best story you know how to tell.

Paula Danziger

#63. I have heard it said that a complicated childhood can lead to a life in the arts. I tell you this story of my father and me to let you know I am qualified to be a comedian.

Steve Martin

#64. I need to tell you a story, a tale of fate and emergence.

Emma Richler

#65. I wanted to tell a dream-come-true story about going from a closeted gay kid who loved pop culture to an out adult man making pop culture. I went from being told when I was 21 that I should never go on TV because of my crossed eyes to winding up being a 'Housewives' whisperer and talk-show host.

Andy Cohen

#66. But I live an interesting life and I can tell a pretty good story and it has helped my career. But the downside is people know everything.

Artie Lange

#67. I usually don't like to 'spoon feed' my audience, because I grew up idolizing story tellers who tell stories using symbolism, so it was in my nature to do the same.

The Weeknd

#68. I work very hard on finding good characters who can explain things to me, and I use them to help tell the story. I organize my pieces not just around people but around animals and plants, energy flows, the path that carbon takes through the food system.

Michael Pollan

#69. I love musicals and music driven films, and my first instinct is to tell the story. And when music is a big part of the action I can literally make the story sing!

David Raiklen

#70. If it's me who loves you, you'll know, as I will tell it you in my own words.

Auliq Ice

#71. Must I tell the story of my life again?

John Garfield

#72. In my opinion, trying to guess what readers want is the wrong approach. You have to tell your story as best you can and as true to yourself as possible. You have to be honest and fair and vulnerable and foolish and brave, and not care what anyone thinks of it.

Jeannette Walls

#73. I try to tell my story as simply as possible, with the camera at eye level.

Howard Hawks

#74. And if you have five seconds to spare, I'll tell you the story of my life.

Morrissey

#75. My experience is that lots of people go to church, sing the songs, tell the story, etc but have profound ambivalence about God.

Rob Bell

#76. I hate travelling and explorers. Yet here I am proposing to tell the story of my expeditions.

Claude Levi-Strauss

#77. Inviting people to inquiry is much more powerful to me than describing my experience. When people hear me tell the story, they often say, "Oh my goodness, I get it. I get it!" But it's not enough.

Byron Katie

#78. So much history can be lost if no one tells the story
so that's what I do. I tell the stories. This is my way of fighting for social change.

Alanis Obomsawin

#79. How can you tell a story with one frame that, by its simplicity, manages to tell a story, a gag that evokes an emotion in you? That became my motto throughout all my life. Simplicity.

Pierre Coffin

#80. My greatest debt will always be to the movie-going public of yesterday and today, without whose love and devotion I would have had no story to tell.

Gloria Swanson

#81. Yes, in all my research, the greatest leaders looked inward and were able to tell a good story with authenticity and passion.

Depak Chopras

#82. Whichever character I'm using and wherever I am in my mind dictates what kind of story I'm going to tell.

Gilbert Hernandez

#83. I began my career creating art for an animated feature film, and it has been a life-long dream to tell some of the story of my own life - the story behind my art - through the medium of motion pictures.

Thomas Kinkade

#84. I always try to describe the situation just as it is. I try to find sentences that I believe tell the story best. Even my articles are more literary than ordinary news stories.

Asne Seierstad

#85. My father is a liar and so am I.
But I'm going to stop. I have to stop.
I will tell you my story and I will tell it straight. No lies, no omissions.
That's my promise.
This time I truly mean it.

Justine Larbalestier

#86. I had an advantage over a lot of people who had gone to school and earned degrees in writing and had learned the rules for writing, so to speak. My style was just to tell a story but to tell it well, and that has worked out for me so far.

Robert Kurson

#87. I don't want to steal anybody's story. I very much want to use the stories that I hear to get lost in my mind, to tell a larger story.

David Levithan

#88. I always tell my students to seek out other writers as models, and though it took me years to heed my own advice, it really was life-altering when I found writers who wrote long stories, full of back story and side plots and sub-histories.

Molly Antopol

#89. Readers often tell me after they've read the books, they find it difficult to sum up the plot in a simple way. My response is, "It's a story about the love a father shares for his daughter. All the rest is just filler."
- MJ Mancini, on his best-selling trilogy, "Revelation".

M.J. Mancini

#90. I hope you're ready, because I'm about to tell you the story of my life. More specifically, why my life ended. And if you're listening to these tapes, you're one of the reasons why.

Jay Asher

#91. I didn't think before that I'd done enough to justify publishing an autobiography but after 40 years in show business I'm now ready to tell my story.

Cilla Black

#92. Life isn't easy. Love isn't easy. Fairy tales are books we read to children. Romance novels are books that make teenagers dream of love and happily ever afters. I'm here to tell you my story. This is my diary. This is my life. This is my truth. You can't make this shit up.

Brenda Novak

#93. I never make notes; just a few small details when I'm writing, but nothing much. The plot is never written down. I will tell the story to myself, but I won't plan it. I'll speak the narrative in my head for a while.

Ruth Rendell

#94. I got scars on my face that tell some kind of story. I'm looking in the mirror, and I got one scar that's really two scars - half from a baseball bat and half from playing football in college. I'll tell you, though, after a while, your face gets so wrinkled up you can hardly see them.

Kris Kristofferson

#95. The way I make music is unique to myself and the way I have lived my life - no one else would tell that story in the same way that I do.

PJ Harvey

#96. I'm not an artist. I set the camera up and tell my story.

Tyler Perry

#97. My primary goal is always to tell a story that will resonate with people on a deeply emotional level.

Chris Milk

#98. I can't tell a story in the white man's language, so I say what I want to say with my paintings.

Allen Sapp

#99. All the characters in this book are fictional, but they are as real to me as the members of my own family. I had to tell their story because they could not.

Maral Boyadjian

#100. When I write a story, I just wanna tell you what's in my head. It can come from real life and then turn into fantasy, stuff just rhyming. And write about what you know. I just like to tell stories that have not been told or told from my perspective.

Nas