#tories

...What happens is of little significance compared with the stories we tell ourselves about what happens. Events matter little, only stories of events affect us. ↗

— Rabih Alameddine

#reality #stories #story #storytelling #perception

A short story must have a single mood and every sentence must build towards it. ↗

— Edgar Allan Poe

#writing #short-story

Short fiction seems more targeted - hand grenades of ideas, if you will. When they work, they hit, they explode, and you never forget them. Long fiction feels more like atmosphere: it's a lot smokier and less defined. ↗

— Paolo Bacigalupi

#short-fiction #short-stories #short-story #short-story

At one magical instant in your early childhood, the page of a book--that string of confused, alien ciphers--shivered into meaning. Words spoke to you, gave up their secrets; at that moment, whole universes opened. You became, irrevocably, a reader. ↗

— Alberto Manguel

#childhood #literature #reading #stories #words

Madame, all stories, if continued far enough, end in death, and he is no true-story teller who would keep that from you. ↗

— Ernest Hemingway

#death #end #enough #far #keep

It's like everyone tells a story about themselves inside their own head. Always. All the time. That story makes you what you are. We build ourselves out of that story. ↗

— Patrick Rothfuss

#self-image #sense-of-self #stories #storytelling #story

Word spread because word will spread. Stories and secrets fight, stories win, shed new secrets, which new stories fight, and on. ↗

— China Miéville

#secrets #stories #gossip

Roland glares at Connor and Connor glares back. Then he says what he always says at moments like this. "Nice socks." Although Roland doesn't look down right away, it derails him just enough for him to back off. He doesn't check to see if his socks match until he thinks Connor isn't looking. And the moment he does, Connor snickers. Small victories are bet­ter than none. ↗

— Neal Shusterman

#small-victories #socks #victories #victory #victory

The stories that I want to tell, especially as a director, don't necessarily have a perfect ending because, the older you get, the more you appreciate a good day versus a happy ending. You understand that life continues on the next day; the reality of things is what happens tomorrow. ↗

— Drew Barrymore

#because #continues #day #director #ending

I've produced and gotten to do a lot of optimistic love stories, and that was so where I was at for 10 years in my life. And now I feel like, Okay, now I know how to do that. I want to get scared again; I want to feel the way I felt when I started my company, when I started producing. ↗

— Drew Barrymore

#company #feel #felt #get #gotten