“We cherish the conventional story of Dr. King and nonviolence, in fact, precisely because that narrative demands so little of us…This conventional narrative is soothing, moving, and politically acceptable, and has only the disadvantage of bearing no resemblance to what actually happened.” LittlesFactsStoriesMovingHappenedKingsDemandNarrativeCherishAcceptableNonviolenceConventionalDrsDisadvantagesSoothingResemblance Author:Timothy B. Tyson
“I was a narrative historian, believing more and more as I matured that the first function of the historian was to answer the child's question, "What happened next?” FirstsBelieveChildrenNextAnswersHappenedFunctionNarrativeHistorianMatured Author:A. J. P. Taylor
“The lucidity of the battle narratives, the vigor of the prose, the strong feeling for the men from generals to privates who did the fighting, are all controlled by a constant sense of how it happened and what it was all about. Foote has the novelist's feeling for character and situation, without losing the historian's scrupulous regard for recorded fact. The Civil War is likely to stand unequalled.” MenWarCharacterFactsFeelingsFightingStrongSituationHappenedHe ManBattleLosingRegardConstantNarrativeNovelistsCivil WarProseControlledHistorianVigorStrong FeelingLucidity Author:Walter Millis
“Written history may, in the course of its narrative, use some of the laws established by the various sciences, but its own task remains that of relating the essential sequence of historical action and, qua history, to tell what happened, not why.” MayUseActionLawCoursesWrittenHappenedEssentialsTasksRemainsHistoricalVariousNarrativeSequenceWritten History Book:The New Psychohistory Source: The New Psychohistory
“To what or whom does Lizzie Harris direct the imperative title of her startling first book, Stop Wanting? To the reader, the narrator, to desire itself, or to lack? This is a work of complexly, ambiguously layered narratives and identities. The opening poem asserts I want to say what happened / but am suspicious of stories. These lines become an ars poetica for the whole of this painful and exceptional collection in which the unspeakable is stubbornly confronted by a searing eloquence. This is a commanding debut.” WantFirstsDoeBookWholeStoriesDesireLinesHappenedIdentityReaderDirectPainfulOpeningNarrativeTitlesCollectionsExceptionalImperativesSuspiciousEloquenceUnspeakableDebutNarrators Author:Lynn Emanuel
“When I worked with Woody Allen, I only got the parts of the script that I was in. I was able to piece together the narrative from that, but I remember being quite excited to watch the movie - the movie that I was in but didn't know what happened in, like, 65 percent of.” KnowsAbleTogetherRememberWatchesPiecesHappenedPercentScriptsExcitedNarrativeWoody Author:Chiwetel Ejiofor
“If prose can cast a spell, we will listen to it no matter what it's saying. If a narrative uses language in a magical and enlivening way, we will listen to the story. But if the language doesn't cast a spell, we will listen to it only if it is telling us something that actually happened.” IfsWayMatterStoriesUseLanguageHappenedNo Matter WhatCastsNarrativeProseSpells Author:Lorrie Moore
“The equivocations, the confusions, the contradictions. There's no way we can live through or comprehend something so big that happened so long ago. We've lost true history. But if we are willing to tolerate the contradictions, and if we suffer through events rather than ticking them off, we may at least get closer to understanding what happened than if we grip the handrail of a carefully polished and reassuringly heroic narrative.” IfsWayMayLongBigsSufferingLostUnderstandingHappenedEventsWillingConfusionNarrativeContradictionHeroicTolerateLong AgoPolished Author:Nicholson Baker
“When you're writing a book that is going to be a narrative with characters and events, you're walking very close to fiction, since you're using some of the methods of fiction writing. You're lying, but some of the details may well come from your general recollection rather than from the particular scene. In the end it comes down to the readers. If they believe you, you're OK. A memoirist is really like any other con man; if he's convincing, he's home. If he isn't, it doesn't really matter whether it happened, he hasn't succeeded in making it feel convincing.” IfsMenFeelsWritingBelieveWellsMayBookEndsMatterCharacterHomeLyingFictionHappenedEventsParticularReaderWalkingSceneMethodDetailsNarrativeConvincingWriting A BookRecollectionFiction Writing Author:Samuel Hynes
“I tend to agree with my husband, that to continue the conversation about something that is an important topic, particularly now, which is that of gun control, through his narrative, which is actually what's happened, I don't think it was a conscious decision of, "That's what we're going to do," but that's what seems to have happened, and that's not a bad thing.” ThinkingImportantSeemsDecisionHappenedHusbandConversationConsciousGunAgreeNarrativeMy HusbandBad ThingsGun ControlTopics Author:Katey Sagal
“Frankly, Django is an American story that needs to be told, when you think of slavery existing in this country for 245 years. In slave narratives there were all types of tales and drama and heroism and pain and love that happened during that time. That's rich material for drama! Everyone complains that there are no new stories left to tell. Not true, there are a whole bunch of them, and they're all American with a capital A.” ThinkingNeedsYearsCountryWholeStoriesPainLeftRichHappenedMaterialsTypeDramaAnd LoveSlaverySlaveComplainingBunchTalesNarrativeHeroismLove And PainDjango Author:Quentin Tarantino
“I had been thinking independently about our ability to forget things that happened, specifically, events that clearly were wrong, that crossed the line. It seemed to me during the 2000 election recount that the media's narrative was being orchestrated. Shockingly, after the Supreme Court decision, the media simply said, "Time to move on," end of reporting: "Here's the new story." And everyone forgot.” ThinkingSaidEndsStoriesMovingLinesAbilityDecisionForgetHappenedMediaEventsElectionCourtSupremeNarrativeSupreme CourtTime To Move OnCourt DecisionSimply Said Author:Robert Kane Pappas
“I'm a memoir writer. I try to understand the world by taking experiences I have and making them into a story, whether it's a narrative memoir, blogging for The Huffington Post, writing poems, or talking on the screen about what has happened to me and how that relates to the world at large.” WorldWritingTryingStoriesTalkingHappenedScreensMemoirPostsRelateNarrativeBloggingWriting Poems Author:Staceyann Chin
“Many of our holidays revolve around traumas that happened to our people and how we must remember them in specific ways. The way these stories are told and what we take away from them can change, and do in certain contexts, but overall I am not sure whether Jews want to let go of the narrative of the victim.” PeopleWayWantStoriesRememberCertainHappenedLetting GoVictimJewTraumaNarrativeNot SureHoliday Author:Jill Soloway