John Edgar Wideman Quotes

As a folklorist, I have come to believe that no piece of folklore continues to be transmitted unless it means something - even if neither the speaker nor the audience can articulate what that meaning might be.

I think, culturally, stories are important, whether it be cinema, whether it be by word of mouth - which I don't even know if we do anymore, as it all seems to be social media.

We are surrounded by story.

All the truth in the world is held in stories.

Each time, storytellers clothed the naked body of the myth in their own traditions, so that listeners could relate more easily to its deeper meaning.

All myths that are something more than fancies gain rather than lose in value with time, by reason of the accretions of human experience.

We are made of the stories we have heard and read all through our lives.

Time is what allows stories to spread into people's consciousness.

I think there is a human instinct to tell stories, no matter who you are or where you live.

We are the only animal that tells stories.

Stories are one of the means by which a culture preserves its identity.

It's important to tell stories, and it's a worthwhile thing to do.

We are the storytelling animal.

Fairy tales and folk tales are part of the DNA of all stories and great fun to write.

I think the basic thing that happened is we have lost our story. Humans think in stories, and we try to make sense of the world by telling stories.

Storytellers all, we humans might run out of time even as we triumph over the problem of running out of space. But we will never run out of stories.

To survive, you must tell stories.

The human world is made of stories, not people. The people the stories use to tell themselves are not to be blamed

People become the stories they hear and the stories they tell.

I think there is something about a story that is enduring. Stories take on a life of their own.

I love storytelling, you know, beyond anything. I love a great story beyond a great performance. Storytelling is about what we all do together and how we collaborate together. A performance can be a collaboration in ways, but oftentimes it's one individual thing.

Storytelling is the important thing.

I don't know that movies are important. But I know that stories are important. Movies may disappear. They've only been around, for God's sake, for the last hundred years... I think that it's the need to tell stories, and that people need to be told stories. It's the old sitting around the fire, you know.

Myths are stories that express meaning, morality or motivation. Whether they are true or not is irrelevant.

Storytelling is an ancient and honorable act. An essential role to play in the community or tribe. It's one that I embrace wholeheartedly and have been fortunate enough to be rewarded for.