On the eve of President Biden’s election, a short, fat boy came to me and said he had a hunch that … blah, blah, blah.
Let me guess; you thought I was going to tell a story. LOL, I’m no Shakespeare. I just needed something to catch your attention.
I’m sure that if I had started this post with something like “65% of web content today is devoid of amazing storylines,” I might not have caught your attention. But since everybody loves a good story, you stayed to read my tale.
Such is the hold that storytelling has over today’s readers. It is no longer enough to write valuable articles or publish thoughtful posts. You need to make your points with gripping stories.
Why else do you think people sit through hours of Netflix? It’s the power of storytelling.
It’s no surprise then that the brands who tell the most captivating stories enjoy the biggest share of their industry’s pie.
Nike embodies the power of storytelling
For many decades now, Nike has been stealing all the bread of the fashion industry with its compelling stories.
In 1999, they made a one-minute commercial. But instead of using it to talk about Nike, they focused on the career of Michael Jordan. Why? Because they knew people would rather watch a documentary about Michael Jordan than sit through a 60-second promotional video.
At the end of the video, they slotted in their “Just Do It” slogan and added the classic Nike logo.
In 2020, they did the same with Kobe Bryant. This time, they hired Kendrick Lamar to tell Kobe’s story.
You should never underestimate the power of good stories. They’re the fastest way into the hearts of your audience.
To help awaken your inner Shakespeare, we’ve compiled 15 quotes about storytelling from some of the world’s most insightful authors and filmmakers. Read on to get inspired.
Best Storytelling Quotes
- “The most powerful words in English are, ‘Tell me a story.’”
Pat Conroy, My Reading Life
- “A story has no beginning or end: arbitrarily one chooses that moment of experience from which to look back or from which to look ahead.”
Graham Greene, novelist, and author of The End of the Affair and The Quiet American
- “Storytelling is our obligation to the next generation. If all we are doing is marketing, we are doing a disservice, and not only to our profession, but to our children, and their children. Give something of meaning to your audience by inspiring, engaging, and educating them with story. Stop marketing. Start storytelling.”
Laura Holloway, Founder & Chief of The Storyteller Agency
- “Storytelling reveals meaning without committing the error of defining it.”
Hannah Arendt, political theorist, philosopher
- “Stories constitute the single most powerful weapon in a leader’s arsenal.”
Dr. Howard Gardner, professor at Harvard University
- “Storytelling offers the opportunity to talk with your audience, not at them.”
Laura Holloway, Founder & Chief of The Storyteller Agency
- “We are narrative creatures, and we need narrative nourishment — narrative catechisms.”
- Wilson, author of Death by Living: Life Is Meant to Be Spent
- “There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.”
Maya Angelou, poet, memoirist, and civil rights activist
- “Marketing is no longer about the stuff that you make, but about the stories you tell.”
Seth Godin, entrepreneur, marketer, public speaker, and author of The Icarus Deception, V Is For Vulnerable, and Whatcha Gonna Do With That Duck
- “Sometimes reality is too complex. Stories give it form.”
Jean Luc Godard, film director, screenwriter, film critic
- “Purposeful storytelling isn’t show business, it’s good business.”
Peter Guber, CEO of Mandalay Entertainment, entrepreneur, educator
- “Narrative is one of the best intoxicants or tranquilizers.”
- Byatt, Still Life
- “If you’re going to have a story, have a big story, or none at all.”
Joseph Campbell, mythologist, writer, and lecturer
- “Stories matter.”
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, novelist and non-fiction author
- “We are, as a species, addicted to story. Even when the body goes to sleep, the mind stays up all night, telling itself stories.”
Jonathan Gottschall, The Storytelling Animal
- “Stories create community, enable us to see through the eyes of other people, and open us to the claims of others.”
Peter Forbes, photographer, and author
- “Whenever I’m asked what advice I have for young writers, I always say that the first thing is to read, and to read a lot. The second thing is to write. And the third thing, which I think is absolutely vital, is to tell stories and listen closely to the stories you’re being told.”
John Green, author
- “Stories are a communal currency of humanity.”
Tahir Shah, in Arabian Nights
- “The human species thinks in metaphors and learns through stories.”
Mary Catherine Bateson, author, and cultural anthropologist
- “At its very core, marketing is storytelling. The best advertising campaigns take us on an emotional journey — appealing to our wants, needs and desires — while at the same time telling us about a product or service.”
Melinda Partin, Multimedia Producer, Digital Marketing director
- “Inside each of us is a natural-born storyteller, waiting to be released.”
Robin Moore, author of The Green Berets
- “Narrative imagining — story — is the fundamental instrument of thought. Rational capacities depend upon it. It is our chief means of looking into the future, of predicting, of planning, and of explaining.”
Mark Turner, cognitive scientist, linguist, and author of The Literary Mind
- “Storytelling is the most powerful way to put ideas into the world.”
Robert McKee, author, lecturer, and professor
- “You know, we love stories and we love narrative; we love to get lost in an author’s world.”
Jeff Bezos, founder, and CEO of Amazon
- “Stories are our primary tools of learning and teaching, the repositories of our lore and legends. They bring order into our confusing world. Think about how many times a day you use stories to pass along data, insights, memories or common-sense advice.”
Edward Miller, founder of Edward Elementary, illustrator, product designer, and author of Boats on the River
- I think the best stories always end up being about the people rather than the event, which is to say character-driven.”
Stephen King, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft
- “The fact of storytelling hints at a fundamental human unease, hints at human imperfection. Where there is perfection there is no story to tell.”
Ben Okri, poet and novelist
- “And do you know what is the most-often missing ingredient in a sales message? It’s the sales message that doesn’t tell an interesting story. Storytelling … good storytelling … is a vital component of a marketing campaign.”
Gary Halbert, marketing practitioner, copywriter, and author of The Boron Letters
- “I’ll tell you a secret. Old storytellers never die. They disappear into their own story.”
Vera Nazarian, author
- “Story is a yearning meeting an obstacle.”
Robert Olen Butler, author of Alleys of Eden, The Star of Istanbul, and other works
- “Those who tell the stories rule the world.”
Hopi American Indian proverb
- “Creating a relatable narrative means digging deep, asking hard questions and potentially airing some uncomfortable truths.”
Tobin Trevarthen, Narrative Generation: Why Narrative Will Become Your Most Valuable Asset in the Next 5 Years
- “Every story needs some sort of secret that impels it forward. Otherwise why would the reader bother to keep on turning the pages?”
Deb Loughead, YA author, and poet
- “Human beings often claim to understand events when they manage to formulate a coherent story or narrative explaining what factors caused a specific incident to occur. Stories assist the human mind to remember and make decisions.”
Kilroy J. Oldster, Dead Toad Scrolls
- “No word matters. But man forgets reality and remembers words.”
Roger Zelazny, Lord of Light
- “Stories are memory aids, instruction manuals and moral compasses.”
Aleks Krotoski, broadcaster, journalist, social psychologist, and author of Untangling the Web
- 37. “Brands’ products should be the manifestation of a company’s values. Those values should be the subject of all sorts of wonderful stories that comprise your company’s narrative.”
Shawn Amos, author, singer/songwriter, digital marketing entrepreneur
- “Telling stories and having them received is so important. That dialogue is everything. I tell my students all the time that what separates us as human beings is our ability to hold stories – our narrative history. There is so much power in that. Storytelling is our human industry.”
Kathi Appelt, YA and children’s author
- “Everything is a narrative in life. I learned that early on as a reporter at The Washington Post.”
Kara Swisher, journalist
- “If you have a good story idea, don’t assume it must form a prose narrative. It may work better as a play, a screenplay or a poem. Be flexible.”
Hilary Mantel, author
- “I’m obsessed with giving the audience something they don’t see coming.”
Jordan Peele, writer, and director of Get Out
- “No story lives unless someone wants to listen. The stories we love best do live in us forever. So whether you come back by page or by the big screen, Hogwarts will always be there to welcome you home.”
J.K. Rowling, author