Samuel R. Delany Quotes

In my own writing, I think of myself as a realist who exaggerates a little.

To me, presentations are the most powerful device. You can't really name a movement that didn't start with the spoken word.

Stories are the single most powerful tool in a leader's toolkit.

The truth isn't the truth until people believe you, and they can't believe you if they don't know what your saying, and they can't know what you've saying if they don't listen to you, and they won't listen to you if you're not interesting, and you won't be interesting until you say things imaginatively, originally, freshly.

For thousands of years, humans have used the art of storytelling to motivate and persuade.

Lead the reader toward the thought, then stop a little short.

There are a lot of great technicians in advertising. And unfortunately they talk the best game. They know all the rules. They can tell you that people in an ad will get you greater readership. They can tell you that a sentence should be this short or that long. They can tell you that body copy should be broken up for easier reading. They can give you fact after fact after fact. They are the scientists of advertising. But there's one little rub. Advertising is fundamentally persuasion and persuasion happens to be not a science, but an art.

Persuasion is not a science but an art

The fiction is not autobiographical. Maybe to some extent it is, of course.

I wrote "Win" for people on both sides, legitimately on both sides. If you're a Democrat listening to this right now, you - the whole playbook is in this book. If you're a Republican, and you're frustrated because Barack Obama is a great communicator, the playbook is in this book. And if you're a corporation who wants to satisfy his - their employees, how to do it is in this book. And finally, if you're an employee and you want to get a raise, whether at NPR or anyplace else, it's in this book.

Storytelling is by far the most underrated skill in business.

The pen is mightier than the sword, but the tongue is mightier than them both put together.

All that is literature seeks to communicate power

There are writers who draw immediate attention to the fact that it's fiction. And I like some of that, but it doesn't really have the power.

Truth persuades by teaching, but does not teach by persuading.

If you want to get an idea across, wrap it up in a person.

You can say anything if enough people will listen.

The longer I live, the more I have come to value the gift of eloquence. Every American youth, if he desires for any purpose to get influence over his countrymen in an honorable way, will seek to become a good public speaker.

WORK ON YOUR STORY! He/she who has the best story wins! In life! In business! The White House!

Let any man speak long enough, he will get believers.

Color and bite permeate a language designed to rally many men, to destroy some, and to change the minds of others.

Don't tell readers what to think. Let the action speak for itself.

In any situation that calls for you to persuade, convince or manage someone or a group of people to do something, the ability to tell a purposeful story will be your secret sauce.

Call on literary convention, and it will gladly tell your story for you.

Conversation is not a search after knowledge, but an endeavor at effect.