Storytelling
Interview and Quotes
Chosen by Laconoia O. Therrio
Alice Walker (in an interview about her work in Common Boundary, 1990)
“Storytelling , you know, has a real funcion, The process of the storytelling is itself a healing process, partly because you have someone there who is taking the time to tell you a story that has great meaning to them. They're taking the time to do this because your life could use some help, but they don’t want to come over and just give advice. They want to give it to you in a form that becomes inseparable from your whole self. That's what stories do. Stories differ from advice in that , once you get them, they become a fabric of your whole soul. That is why they heal you.”
Personal communication from Eileen DeLorenzo, Storyteller (Detroit, MI)
“Story can help us experience God in ourselves, each other and the world around us; mustard seeds, birds, bread…GOD IS. The connections one makes in storytelling are so vast they cannot be boxed in no more than God can be boxed in. When we are drawn into story and allow it to touch us we are experiencing a connection within what we feel the story is communicating – joy, fear, courage, love, hope, pride, humility. In making our personal connections in the story we make connections about ourselves, humanity and the world.”
People’s response to the death of the legendary character, John Henry, from Julius Lester’s John Henry.
“Dying ain’t what’s important. Everybody does that. What matters is how well you do your living.”
Quote, from James Stephens, Irish Poet, in Ruth Sawyer’s book The Way of the Storyteller, Penguin Books, New York, 1942.
“I have learned…that the head does not hear anything until the heart has listened, and what the heart knows today the head will understand tomorrow.”
“A community of Leprechauns without a crock of gold is a blighted and merriless community…A Leprechaun is of more value to the Earth than is a Prime Minster.”
From the introduction to Rachel Naomi Remen’s book: Kitchen Table Wisdom. Riverhead Books, New York, 1996.
“Everybody is a story. When I was a child, people sat around kitchen tables and told their stories. We don’t do that as much anymore. Sitting around the table telling stories is not just a way of passing time. It is the way the wisdom gets passed along. The stuff that helps us to live a life worth remembering… .”
“The less time we spend together at the kitchen table, the more how-to books appear in the stories and on our bookshelves. But reading such books is a very different thing than listening to someone's lived experience...”
“The kitchen table is a level playing field. Everyone’s story matters…”
“Hidden in all stories is the One story. The more we listen, the clearer that Story becomes. Our true identity, who we are, why we are adhere, what sustains us, is in this story.”