Bonnie Jo Campbell Quotes

It's a fun thing to do, to put yourself in the service of something if you think you can add an interpretation. It's no different than any other storytelling.

The most powerful words in English are 'Tell me a story,' words that are intimately related to the complexity of history, the origins of language, the continuity of the species, the taproot of our humanity, our singularity, and art itself.

Stories are not explanations of the world we live in. Science does that, and math does that. Our obligation as fiction writers is to enhance the mysteries.

Art's everything we hope life would be, a lot of times.

I think telling stories is like pushing something. Pushing against uncreation itself, maybe.

Take a step, breathe in the world, give it out again in story, poem, song, art.

The most important thing to realize is that everyone is capable of telling a story.

The most powerful words in English are 'Tell me a story,' words that are intimately related to the complexity of history, the origins of language, the continuity of the species, the taproot of our humanity, our singularity, and art itself. I was born into the century in which novels lost their stories, poems their rhymes, paintings their form, and music its beauty, but that does not mean I had to like that trend or go along with it. I fight against these movements with every book I write.

To me, writing is fun. It doesn't matter what you're writing, as long as you can tell a story.

Not all poetry wants to be storytelling. And not all storytelling wants to be poetry. But great storytellers and great poets share something in common: They had something to say, and did.

I think storytelling is a thing of beauty, and also very difficult. It's a craft you have to continue to work at.

Every story is different, so what is a detail in one might not be in something else. Diversity is something I embrace and love about my work.

Storytelling reveals meaning without committing the error of defining it.

I think the most important thing when you're telling a story is to just tell the story as best as you possibly can.

I think the writing of literature should give pleasure. What else should it be about? It is not nuclear physics. It actually has to give pleasure or it is worth nothing.

Reason is a fine thing, but it is not the only thing available to a writer. It's just part of the arsenal of many things available to a storyteller. Revelation, for example.

I really value words. I really try to illustrate and let people draw their own conclusions.

Every kid has a story to tell!

These days, I like to think of sentences as workers. Only one of their jobs is to look and sound good. Sentences are the carriers of plot. They're the conjurers of images, the conveyors of tone and meaning and voice. The best sentences surprise us.

When you're telling stories, you are actually trying to illuminate some portion of the truth in an artful way. The story may immediately seem to be a lie, but it's like an impressionistic painting - you see the light and the color better than you would with a photo-realistic piece.

The greatness of art is not to find what is common but what is unique.

Art requires philosophy, just as philosophy requires art. Otherwise, what would become of beauty?

Everything is complicated; if that were not so, life and poetry and everything else would be a bore.

I think the deeper you go into questions, the deeper or more interesting the questions get. And I think that's the job of art.

What has always attracted me in life is poetry. Any genre can have poetry. For me, poetry contains truth.