Simon Schama Quotes

A witty illustration or an apt story will accomplish more than columns of argument.

A book can be wonderful and powerful and accessible and artful all at the same time.

Managing to tell a story is very gratifying.

Most young people haven't used their storytelling skills since they were 8 or 9 or 10 and wanted to persuade Mom and Dad to take them to the ball game.

There are lots of similarities between being a writer and a lawyer: to tell a story to a jury, hold their attention, make them laugh, make them like you. But what makes being a barrister less satisfying than being a writer is, finally, that it's about what someone else wants you to say.

We're storytellers - and if the story is told well, you go with the form.

A lot of people ask me, did debating help me as a writer, and I honestly don't know.

There's a difference between telling a story and not providing an explanation because you just don't do it well or pull it off.

What is said by the person holding a megaphone inciting a crowd, or what is said by someone who incites a rumour? And what is the difference between that person and me, sitting in my room imagining something, telling a story?

Anyone who writes down to children is simply wasting his time. You have to write up, not down.

If you have a story that seems worth telling, and you think you can tell it worthily, then the thing for you to do is to tell it, regardless of whether it has to do with sex, sailors or mounted policemen.

As soon as I could write, I was writing stories.

Mind you, as a little boy, I always had other interests from most kids. I was not a boy who rubbed around baseball bats. I always had the storytelling instinct, even as a child. I was a very imaginative little boy.

Even as a little kid, I told lots of stories, and I wrote them down, and I loved reading fiction and fantasy.

We're all storytellers in this business, and I personally love to sit back and watch someone tell a story. If it's done well, there's nothing like it. It's pure.

I've loved writing since I was little. I used to write stories.

In my writing, I try to combine all my favorite elements of journalism - accuracy, real characters that exist on this planet - with all my favorite elements of literature: a sense of flow, of propulsion, of wanting to read every sentence.

I was always writing. I've always been attracted to words and stories, communication.

I've always had the ability to manipulate words and communicate ideas and thoughts.

I'm a total slave to a good story.

I love great writing.

A lot of school-going children are familiar with my writing. I am basically very much a children books author.

No matter what kind of writing you do, it's always the details that make the story.

I love telling stories, and I'm a born storyteller. That's what I do, and that's what I want to continue to do.

I've realised that my strength is writing around people.