Karen Russell Quotes

Never underestimate the power of a good story.

Those who tell the stories rule society.

But if we have people who have the power to tell a story, there will always be readers.

How [stories] are told, who tells them, when they’re told, how many stories are told — are really dependent on power.

All stories teach, whether the storyteller intends them to or not. They teach the world we create. They teach the morality we live by. They teach it much more effectively than moral precepts and instructions.

Only library books speak with such wordless eloquence of the power good stories hold over us.

Stories change people while statistics give them something to argue about.

I wanted to hold onto and exploit the power of narrative. This is not only a book about a great storyteller, but there have to be stories about the storyteller.

I really do think of it in moral terms. I think that we can't kid ourselves that the storytelling impulse is innocent and does nothing but bring good to the world.

The one who tells the stories rules.

If a story is telling a truth, then why shouldn't it affect everybody?

By the sheer act of writing, we are trying to place value on the stories that we're invested in.

When you tell a story that you know is having an effect on the audience, that, for me, is the transforming thing.

We learn so much about the world by what we take in through movies and TV and books - we learn who's worthy of having their story told.

The confidence that individuals have in their beliefs depends mostly on the quality of the story they can tell about what they see, even if they see little.

The most powerful words in English are, 'Tell me a story.'

I think you have to be very careful with effects that they don't overpower the story with the visual element.

Those who do not have power over the story that dominates their lives, power to retell it, to rethink it, deconstruct it, joke about it, and change it as times change, truly are powerless, because they cannot think new thoughts.

Many stories matter. Stories have been used to dispossess and to malign. But stories can also be used to empower, and to humanize. Stories can break the dignity of a people. But stories can also repair that broken dignity.

Fire will burn any human body it touches, and starvation will waste it, but stories are not so predictable in their effects.

When a reader finishes a wonderful story and lays it aside, he should have to pause for a minute and collect himself.

There is an extraordinary power in storytelling that stirs the imagination and makes an indelible impression on the mind.

People think that stories are shaped by people. In fact, it's the other way around.

There is no greater power on this earth than story.

Stories are more than compelling facts. People remember stories more than they remember statistics.