Local Narratives Quotes

We cheer everyone who goes off to Hollywood and tells American stories but telling Australian stories is the greatest thing you can do.

It's quite a thing, if you've never been in or known a small southern town. The people are not particularly sophisticated, naturally. They're not worldly wise in any way. But they tell you a story whenever they see you.

You could perhaps better tell the story of a place by writing of a tiny village as a sort of prism into the bigger issues the culture was facing. It struck me as a better way to learn about a place, or at least a different way, than just going to interview the president. So I have often tried to tell the story of a place through people there. But I'm just amazed.

History is often best told from the ground, out of a car window or in someone's kitchen, not through some huge production mechanism or grand framing device.

The phantasmagoria, the actual experience that we try to understand and organize through narrative, varies from place to place. No single narrative serves the needs of everyone everywhere.

The audience will show up if you have authenticity. Like 'Moonlight,' there was stuff in there that is so specific to that community where the filmmakers grew up. Even if I don't understand everything they're talking about, I will love it if I feel that it's real.

I think I started writing because no one had ever told me you can write about the things you know in a musical. They don't have to come from some far off place.

Can you imagine what it would be like if all the Aussie film talent was able to make Australian stories?

Issues become much more real to me when I have stories back home.

I think there's a stigma to some degree about the outer boroughs and Jersey, and whether their stories are worth telling.

Hollywood so often likes to make movies that are just about itself. I felt there were a lot of stories that were yet to be told in the middle of the country, and I wanted to capture some of that beauty.

Theater should address the stories of its communities, or I don't know why it's here.

I think any journalist who spends time in a place realizes that there are lots of stories around beyond their primary story. You meet so many interesting people and have all kinds of experiences.

I think you can tell any human story in a particular place.

Music is so important. Because in Chicago it's up to us to tell the stories nobody else will.