Jeanette Winterson Quotes

Stories matter. Many stories matter.

Stories are different every time you tell them - they allow so many possible narratives.

I think we all have a responsibility to tell good stories.

I think all artists have a different story to tell, and no story is the same.

It's often said that everybody has a story to tell, and I suppose that's true, but the problem is that most of them aren't worth telling.

I do think we have a responsibility to be aware of the stories we're telling and how those stories will be interpreted and what sorts of value systems we're celebrating.

We have privilege in our hands as storytellers. We need to tell stories that reflect our world.

I appreciate hearing different stories. It inspires me.

I try my best to live by the principle that if you're going to be telling a story that you didn't live, tell it with as much respect as you can for the people who did live it.

I always think that my assignment is to seek out stories that are experienced by people who don't get the ticket for Easy Street.

What you cut out becomes part of the story you tell.

I absolutely love television. What's so great about TV is that I can tell 20 stories in a year. If I was working at a feature studio, I'd tell 1% of someone else's story, over the course of four years.

Literature can remind us that not all life is already written down: there are still so many stories to be told.

This may be a little bit of a provocative thing to say, but the memoirist doesn't owe the reader anything other than a good story and the inclining of the mind in the direction of memory. Of course, the memoirist is not allowed to make things up. But the really skilled memoirist knows what to leave in and what to leave out to serve the story. In autobiography you can't do that.

When you can state the theme of a story, when you can separate it from the story itself, then you can be sure the story is not a very good one.

People are interested if you tell stories well and relevantly.

As a journalist, I've felt as if it's a privilege that people share their stories and want you to be the messenger.... Even in my current job, when I go abroad, I'm racing to get back to the president and the secretary to share what I've seen.

Sometimes hearing the stories is going to change people's lives much more than if they read it.

Story is honorable and trustworthy; plot is shifty, and best kept under house arrest.

Whoever wants to tell a variety of stories ought to have a variety of beginnings.

I love hearing stories, telling stories, sharing stories. I've shared 37,000 on the Oprah show! Every day I was like the town crier.

Story is a relationship between the teller and the listener, a responsibility. After the listening you become accountable for the sacred knowledge that has been shared.

In a sea of stories, find the right one to tell, and the right way to tell it.

I don't know of a greater privilege than being allowed to tell a story, or to listen to a story. They're the only thing we have that can trump life itself.

When people write to me with stories, they are never ones that work for me. There's something mysterious about which ones catch you.