“I was writing very early, like I was involved in our high school literary magazine, which was called 'Pariah.' The football team was the Bears, and the literary magazine was 'Pariah.' It was great. It was definitely a real sub-culture. But I wrote stories for them.” WritingRealStoriesSchoolCultureTeamFootballBearsInvolvedHigh SchoolMagazinesFootball TeamPariahs Author:Tom Perrotta
“Sports biography at its best. Rich in period detail, anecdote, and fresh perspective, Strong Boy paints both the good and the bad sides of success, as America's growing celebrity culture turned a simple Irish American gladiator into a national, in fact international hero. A very human story with profound parallels for our sports-obsessed culture today!” HumansFactsStoriesTodayAmericaCultureStrongSportsSidesSimpleBoysRichGrowingPerspectiveHeroPeriodsProfoundPaintInternationalDetailsObsessedBiographiesParallelsAnecdotesCelebrity Culture Author:Nigel Hamilton
“The Islamic conquest of India is probably the bloodiest story in history. It is a discouraging tale, for its evident moral is that civilization is a precious good, whose delicate complex of order and freedom, culture and peace, can at any moment be overthrown by barbarians invading from without or multiplying within.” MomentsStoriesOrderCultureMoralCivilizationIndiaComplexesTalesIslamicDelicateEvidentConquestDiscouragingBarbariansInvadingMultiplying Author:Will Durant
“I wanted to tell a dream-come-true story about going from a closeted gay kid who loved pop culture to an out adult man making pop culture. I went from being told when I was 21 that I should never go on TV because of my crossed eyes to winding up being a 'Housewives' whisperer and talk-show host.” MenShouldStoriesShowsDreamEyeKidsWantedCultureTvsGoes OnGayAdultsPopsHostDreams Come TruePop CultureHousewifeTrue StoryTalk ShowsWinding Up Author:Andy Cohen
“I write on sacred stories, symbols and rituals of all cultures - European, American and Chinese - but my audiences, typically, like me to focus on India.” WritingStoriesCultureAudienceFocusIndiaSacredLike MeSymbolsChineseRitual Author:Devdutt Pattanaik
“As a person of color, I was just really tired of the fact that I wasn't seeing my story in the culture.” PersonsFactsStoriesCultureSeeingColorTired Author:Justin Simien
“People see their own lives as stories; a lifelong story with a single hero or heroine... much contemporary unhappiness is due to the fact that people in high tech societies receive neither strong myths and stories from their culture nor the ability to construct their own... they lose the plot.” PeopleFactsStoriesCultureStrongLosesAbilityLearningTeachingHeroDuesMythContemporaryPlotUnhappinessConstructsLifelongHeroines Author:Guy Claxton
“Storytelling is how we survive, when there's no feed, the story feeds something, it feeds the spirit, the imagination. I can't imagine life without stories, stories from my parents, my culture. Stories from other people's parents, their culture. That's how we learn from each other, it's the best way. That's why literature is so important, it connects us heart to heart.” PeopleWayHeartI CanImportantStoriesSpiritCultureLiteratureParentImaginationImagineBest WayStorytellingHeart To Heart Author:Alice Walker
“That's why we sail. So our children can grow up and be proud of whom they are. We are healing our souls by reconnecting to our ancestors. As we voyage we are creating new stories within the tradition of the old stories, we are literally creating a new culture out of the old.” ChildrenSoulStoriesCultureGrowsHealingGrowing UpProudTravelCreatingTraditionOur ChildrenAncestorSailBe ProudSailingVoyagesSpiritual HealingHawaiiansNew CulturesReconnectingNavigators Author:Nainoa Thompson
“It has been said, "History is written by the victors." I take this to mean we can make ourselves victorious by writing, and then rewriting our own stories. In a country and culture so dominated by media, by the manipulation of words and stories, telling the tales of people whose stories historically have not been told is a radical act and I believe an act that can change the world and help rewrite history.” PeopleWorldWritingBelieveMeanHas BeensSaidCountryHelpingStoriesCultureI BelieveWrittenMediaTalesRadicalChanging The WorldManipulationRewriting Author:Jennifer Beals
“I love irony in pictures. There's one photograph from Vietnam by Philip Jones Griffiths that shows a very large GI having his pocket picked by a tiny Vietnamese woman. It told the whole story of the clash of two cultures and how the invader could never win.” TwoWholeStoriesShowsCultureWinningPhotographTinyIronyPocketsVietnamClashPhilipVietnameseInvadersGisTwo Cultures Author:John Pilger
“The truth is, everything we know about America, everything Americans come to know about being American, isn't from the news. I live there. We don't go home at the end of the day and think, "Well, I really know who I am now because the Wall Street Journal says that the Stock Exchange closed at this many points." What we know about how to be who we are comes from stories. It comes from the novels, the movies, the fashion magazines. It comes from popular culture.” ThinkingKnowsWellsEndsStoriesHomeAmericaCultureNovelStreetsFashionWallTruth IsNewsWho I AmMagazinesWho We AreThe End Of The DayJournalPopular CultureStock ExchangeWall Street JournalFashion Magazines Author:Chris Abani
“It's a great historical joke that when the Spanish met the Aztecs, it was a blind date made in serve-you-right heaven. At the time, they were the two most unpleasant cultures in the entire world, and richly deserved each other. Still, the story of how stout Cortes blustered, bullied and bludgeoned his way to collapsing an entire empire with a handful of contagious hoodlums is astonishing.” WorldWayMadeStillsTwoStoriesCultureHeavenHistoryHumourMetsJokesBlindHistoricalEmpiresHandfulAstonishingContagiousBulliedStoutBlind DateGreat Historical Author:A. A. Gill
“Centuries from now our great-great-great-grandchildren will look back at us with amazement at how we could allow such a precious achievement of human culture as the telling of a story to be shattered into smithereens by commercials, the same amazement we feel today when we look at our ancestors for whom slavery, capital punishment, burning of witches, and the inquisition were acceptable everyday events.” FeelsHumansLooksStoriesTodayFilmCultureCenturyEventsAchievementHollywoodSlaveryEverydayPunishmentBurningWitchAncestorAcceptableGrandchildrenShatteredAmazementCapital PunishmentInquisitionGreat Grandchildren Author:Werner Herzog
“My mom is American, so I was raised in her household in my formative years. But as I got older, my pops tried to keep me involved with the culture by telling me the stories of the conflict between Ethiopia and Eritrea, how he came to America, and about our family back home, because all that side of my family, my aunties, grandparents, is in Africa.” YearsStoriesHomeAmericaCultureSidesMomInvolvedConflictMy FamilyRaisedMy MomPopsOur FamilyHouseholdGrandparentBack HomeEthiopiaFormative YearsEritrea Author:Nipsey Hussle
“For girls and women, storytelling has a double and triple importance. Because the stories of our lives have been marginalized and ignored by history, and often dismissed and treated as 'gossip' within our own cultures and families, female human beings are more likely to be discouraged from telling our stories and from listening to each other with seriousness.” HumansHas BeensStoriesCultureGirlHuman BeingsHistoryOur LivesListeningFemaleImportanceTreatedStorytellingGossipIgnoredDiscouragedSeriousnessMarginalized Author:Gloria Steinem
“Nostalgia is also a trait of the organizations that I call lodges - everything from corporate cultures to religious sects. Their bonding power often exceeds loyalty to family or country because they create intimacy through shared ideals and beliefs, ceremonies, stories, and legends, and depend on it for their survival. The message is clear: Don't question what we're doing. Just appreciate how long we've been doing it.” LongCountryStoriesCultureBeliefReligiousBusinessClearDependsMessagesSurvivalIdealsAppreciateOrganizationNostalgiaLoyaltyIntimacyCorporateLegendsTraitsCeremonyExceedSectsBondingCorporate CultureLodgesReligious Sects Book:Thinking In The Future Tense Source: Thinking In The Future Tense
“if I love something I do it, and if I don't, I don't. I think that this is the most important choice that any of us can make in life, in art, in history: to do the thing you love. If you love it, it is important. If you love it then while you are doing it, you are a true expression of yourself and your time and your story. You are authentic. If you don't love it you betray not only yourself but also your history, your culture, your position in your society.” IfsThinkingArtImportantStoriesChoicesCulturePassionPositionExpressionBetrayThings You LoveImportant Choices Author:Lina Wertmuller
“When I first encountered the poems of Jon Woodward, I was stunned into the state that is my life's joy-I was in the presence of the inimitable. Uncanny Valley extends that experience-almost into another dimension. These apocalyptic, pixilated poems forge a mythology of our ravaged culture, one that might have been written in the future. If you want poetry to give you a persimmon on a plate, look elsewhere; if you want to know what happens when seven trees fall on the highway and the story is told by a stutterer, this is the book, and it could only have been written by Woodward.” IfsKnowsWantGivingFirstsLooksHas BeensBookStatesStoriesMightHappensJoyFallCultureWrittenTreeSevenMythologyDimensionsValleysElsewherePlatesMight Have BeenHighwaysApocalypticStunnedUncanny Author:Mary Ruefle
“People who don't have stories in their cultures go nuts.” PeopleStoriesCultureNuts Author:Rafe Martin
“The term 'popular culture' always used to mean what the people do - pop songs, folk songs, music in general used to live because people would sing these songs and tell these stories together. Then all of these new technologies came out and it became the work of professionals.” PeopleMeanStoriesTogetherUsedSongCultureTermTechnologyFolksPopsNew TechnologyPopular CulturePop SongFolk Songs Author:Joseph Gordon-Levitt
“I'm not trying to explain other cultures, or to give a fair and balanced account of a country, or the top ten things you need to know. I'm not trying to spread world peace and understanding. I'm not an advocate or an activist or an educator or a journalist. I'm out there trying to tell stories the best I can.” KnowsWorldNeedsGivingTryingI CanCountryStoriesCultureUnderstandingTenFairsAccountsSpreadJournalistActivistBalancedEducatorOther Cultures Author:Anthony Bourdain