What writers & others say
“Facts tell, stories sell.”
— Anonymous
“We tell stories in order to feel at home in the universe.”
— Roger Bingham, British science communicator, writer, and public television producer and host
“We’re supposed to be tellers of tales as well as purveyors of facts. When we don’t live up to that responsibility, we don’t get read.”
— William Blundell, author, The Art and Craft of Feature Writing
“‘History’ is mostly ‘story.’”
— Ken Burns, Guggenheim-, Peabody- and Emmy Award-winning filmmaker
“Everything starts with a story.”
— Joseph Campbell, American mythologist, writer and lecturer
“Most journalism is written in reports or articles, not stories. The goal of reports is to impart information. The goal of stories is to impart experience. Reports use language that points you there. Stories use language that puts you there.”
— Roy Peter Clark, vice president and senior scholar, The Poynter Institute
“Dogs sniff each other. Human beings tell stories. This is our native language.”
— Steve Denning, author, The Springboard
“We tell ourselves stories in order to live.”
— Joan Didion, author, in The White Album
“Narrative is writing rather than just reporting. A reporter gathers information and regurgitates it — sometimes projectile-vomits it — into the computer. A writer arranges the information in a way that draws pictures, evokes tears, holds the reader’s attention. A good writer does this … like telling a story over a cup of coffee at the kitchen table.”
— Suzy Fleming, features editor, Florida Today
“Narrative is a simple thing, at bottom: chronology with meaning.”
— Jon Franklin, Pulitzer Prize-winning science writer
“Whenever you find yourself laughing at a situation or shaking your head or saying to someone, ‘Listen to this,’ you’ve probably got a story.”
— Ken Fuson, reporter, The Des Moines Register
“Most journalism trades in stories so dull and familiar that it makes the world smaller and stupider than it really is.”
— Ira Glass, host, This American Life
“Great stories happen to those who can tell them.”
— Ira Glass, host, This American Life
“Sometimes reality is too complex. Stories give it form.”
— Jean Luc Godard, film director, screenwriter and film critic
“Marketing is no longer about the stuff that you make, but about the stories you tell.”
— Seth Godin, best-selling author, entrepreneur and speaker
“The story — from Rumpelstiltskin to War and Peace — is one of the basic tools invented by the human mind for the purpose of understanding. There have been great societies that did not use the wheel, but there have been no societies that did not tell stories.”
— Ursula Le Guin, American fantasy and science fiction author
“The human mind is a story processor, not a logic processor.”
— Jonathan Haidt, social psychologist at New York University
“The flood is the news, but Noah is the story.”
— Julie Hamp, senior advisor, The Hawksbill Group
“Stories are what make us human. Opposable thumbs? Other animals have those. Ability to use tools? Ditto. Even language is not exclusive to human beings.”
— Andrew Hinton, information architect, The Understanding Group
“Scratch the surface in a typical boardroom and we’re all just cavemen with briefcases, hungry for a wise person to tell us stories.”
— Alan Kay, former Hewlett-Packard executive and co-founder of Xerox PARC
“Story rather than datum is the basic unit of journalism.”
— Nicholas Lemann, dean of the Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University
“The belly craves food, she thinks, the tongue craves water, the heart craves love, and the mind craves stories.”
— A character in David Mitchell’s novel The Thousand Autumns of Jacob De Zoet
“Tell me the facts and I’ll learn. Tell me the truth and I’ll believe. But tell me a story, and it will live in heart forever.”
— Native American proverb
“Stories are the most powerful form of human communication.”
— Peg C. Neuhauser, author, Corporate Legends and Lore
“Most businesspeople describe their dreams and strategies — their stories — just as they’ve been doing it for decades: stiffly, from behind a podium, and maybe with a few slides. Call it Corporate Sominex.”
— Daniel H. Pink, business guru and writer
“After nourishment, shelter and companionship, stories are the thing we need most in the world.”
— Philip Pullman, English novelist
“There’s always room for a story that can transport people to another place.”
— J.K. Rowling, author, Harry Potter series
“The Universe is made of stories, not of atoms.”
— Muriel Rukeyser, poet and social activist
“Humans are not ideally set up to understand logic; they are ideally set up to understand stories.”
— Roger C. Schank, cognitive scientist
“Just mention two words — ‘good Samaritan’ — and everybody instantly gets the point. People remember the principle because they liked the story.”
— Tom Selsa, editor, Amoco Torch
“Narrative is the poetry that connects the numbers, the music to go with the math.”
— Casey Seiler, entertainment editor, Albany Times Union
“I like a good story well told. That’s the reason I’m sometimes forced to tell them myself.”
— Mark Twain, American writer and wit
“Explanatory talk and statistics appeal to the intellect, but people aren’t inspired by reason alone. Compelling stories convey loads of information while also appealing to our emotions, ensuring that we not only listen, but get engaged and inspired.”
— Sangeeth Varghese, founder of LeadCap and author of Decide to Lead
“Many top executives, trained at conventional business schools, eschew storytelling and stick to a tight-jacketed professional approach. They lay out their vision, goals and results using data points, graphs, Excel sheets and PowerPoint slides. They transform the boardroom into a bored room.”
— Sangeeth Varghese, founder, LeadCap and author of Decide to Lead
“Great leaders — religious, political or business — realize [the power of stories] and are good storytellers. Jesus spoke in parables. Krishna and Rama came to life through the stories they told. The Torah … is not a boring list of rules but a set of moral lessons and commandments intertwined with a wealth of life stories.”
— Sangeeth Varghese, founder of LeadCap and author of Decide to Lead
“God made man because He loves stories.”
— Elie Wiesel, author and Nobel Peace Prize-winner
How can you tell better business stories?
Stories are so effective that Og Mandino, the late author of the bestselling The Greatest Salesman in the World, says, “If you have a point, find a story.”
Learn to find, develop and write stories that engage readers’ hearts and minds in our Master the Art of Storytelling workshops.
There, you’ll learn how to find the aha! moment that’s the gateway to every anecdote. How to start an anecdote with a bang — instead of a whimper. And how to use “the most powerful form of human communication” to grab attention, boost credibility, make messages more memorable and communicate better.
