Michael Paterniti Quotes

There is something in human beings that loves stories.

I love relatable stories.

Anyway, stories bring us together to find common ground, to find our way through life together, or just to entertain us, and I am just thrilled to be a part of that process.

Back in the old days, when I was a child, we sat around the family table at dinner time and exchanged our daily experiences. It wasn't very organized, but everyone was recognized and all the news that had to be told was told by each family member. We listened to each other and the interest was not put on; it was real.

Family is just the people you care about. We can bond with people that we have nothing in common with, even if it's just for a moment.

Humanity has this need to hear stories because they connect us with other people, they teach us about our own feelings. We feel less lonely when we see other people going through the same things, even if they're fictional characters.

It struck me as I listened to those two men that a truer nomination (name) for our species than Homo sapiens might be Homo narrans, the storytelling person. What differentiates us from animals is the fact that we can listen to other people’s dreams, fears, joys, sorrows, desires and defeats–and they in turn can listen to ours.

A toddling little girl is a centre of common feeling which makes the most dissimilar people understand each other.

The - the sort of thing that I want to do is to strike a resonant chord of universality in other people, which is best done by fiction.

To share our stories is not only a worthwhile endeavor for the storyteller, but for those who hear our stories and feel less alone because of it.

Storytelling is the essential human activity. The harder the situation, the more essential it is.

The stories we tell about each other matter very much. The stories we tell ourselves about our own lives matter. And most of all, I think the way that we participate in each other's stories is of deep importance.

The great thing about a song is that no one has to know your story. But if you tell it in a way that has clarity and means something to somebody else, then it can apply to their story.

The funny thing about writing is, although you are writing about an experience which only you have had, you are trying to welcome other people into it, and there are ways I think of doing this, and one of them is through the senses, through the sounds and the smells.

All art to me is an empathetic act. Whoever's telling a story is trying to transfer emotion into someone else.

Depending on the story that you're telling, you can be relatable to everybody or nobody. I try and tell everybody's story.

One of the key qualities of all stories is that they are made to be shared.

People love stories. They need stories.

People need stories; they want stories. They always will.

When a story is told really well and is real, even if it's not about their own lives, people can apply it to themselves.

I love telling people's stories.

That's the power of fiction, that it can take the collective and make it personal.

Any relationship, I'm talking about even with your kids, when you got something they can relate to - both of y'all - it helps.

I've always been interested in listening to people's stories.

I think that human beings are often looking for a reason to relate.