Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni Quotes

Folk tales and myths, they've lasted for a reason. We tell them over and over because we keep finding truths in them, and we keep finding life in them.

We learn best to listen to our own voices if we are listening at the same time to other women - whose stories, for all our differences, turn out, if we listen well, to be our stories also.

'Moby-Dick' has a remarkable way of resonating with whatever is going on in the world at that particular moment.

I'm interested in themes that endure from generation to generation.

Stories and narratives are one of the most powerful things in humanity. They're devices for dealing with the chaotic danger of existence.

I love 'Jungle Book' and all the classics growing up, but what I learned about this is that these Disney films are basically classic fables that have been told for thousands of years.

The most valuable writers are those in whom we find not themselves, or ourselves, or the fugitive era of their lifetimes, but the common vision of all times.

Shakespeare is global - of course he can be shared.

Storytelling awakens us to that which is real. Honest. . . . it transcends the individual. . . . Those things that are most personal are most general, and are, in turn, most trusted. Stories bind. . . . They are basic to who we are. A story composite personality which grows out of its community. It maintains a stability within that community, providing common knowledge as to how things are, how things should be -- knowledge based on experience. These stories become the conscience of the group. They belong to everyone.

A good story transcends boundaries, breaks barriers and opens doors.

I think there's a great difference in consciousness in that same way in that when we're young we read books for the story, for the excitement of the story - and there comes a time when you realise that all stories are more or less the same story.

The narrative of so many fairy tales are timeless in so many different cultures, and they have been since the dawn of man. They represent escapism, but they all feature themes that have such poignancy in a modern world.

A good story never dies.

What I find interesting about folklore is the dialogue it gives us with storytellers from centuries past.

Of an old tale which every schoolboy knows.

One of the things novels should do is shine a light on those parts of us that are common, the fibres that connect all of us. They should convey the sense that we're all connected, coming from the same tree, sharing common roots.

There might be children in Somalia or the Arctic who have never heard of 'Hamlet' or the 'Great Gatsby.' But you can bet they know 'Tarzan.'

I love fairy tales because I think that behind fairy tales, there is always a meaning.

We're all connected, related, part of one another's lives through the stories we tell ourselves and each other. For good and for bad.

I just think that good stories are stories that reflect ourselves back at us and each other.

The same myths are told in every culture, and they might swap out details, but it's still the same story. It's the same story, but with a different face.

We are the storytelling animal.

That's what's amazing about songwriting: you can write a story that everyone connects to.

Art is a way of penetrating and going deep into our unconscious and creating amazing worlds - as the Greeks did, if you like, as did Ovid with his stories and his fantasies.

When you get a bunch of Latinxs together, we get to handle our stories. A cultural shorthand happens.