We’re not just writers, we’re also storytellers. Facts are good, but a story is what people prefer to listen to over a blog that just talks about facts
. If you’re looking to craft a more impactful story for your brand or content, Donald Miller’s Building a StoryBrand offers insightful strategies on structuring your narrative to connect with your audience.
So here are 23 quotes that might help you become a better storyteller:
Know yourself
“We do not write because we want to; we write because we have to. It is a way of knowing ourselves, of putting our lives in perspective.” — Jeanette Winterson
Listen to your stories
“Listen, stories move in circles. They don’t go in straight lines
So it helps if you have listen in circles because there are
Stories inside and stories between stories and finding
Your own way through them is as easy and hard as
finding your home and part of finding is the getting
Lost. And when you’re lost, you really start to Open up and start listening.”
― Traveling Jewish Theater
Before you tell your stories you have to listen to yourself
People find it very difficult to follow a story that is not
Clear in the mind of the person who is telling it.” -Terry Pratchet
Write a biography of your life
“We write to taste life twice, in the moment and in retrospect.” –
Anaïs Nin
Decision stories
“Every decision you make is a new story you write.” — Paulo Coelho
Find the beginning of the story
“You can make a great story even out of a bad idea, but you can’t
make a good story out of a bad beginning.” — Jodi Picoult
Finding your ending of the story
“The conclusion is the place where the reader or listener will
remember what you said.” — Dale Carnegie
Elements of storytelling
Character is plot, plot is character.” — E.M. Forster
Character
“The reader wants to live the experience of the character.
They want to walk in their shoes, feel their feelings, and
face their challenges.” — James Scott Bell
Dialogue reveals character more than description
“I think I learned as much as I could from Hemingway because he made it look easy. There was always a lot of whitespace on his pages. There’d be dialogue straight down and just a little bit of description of people. But you knew from the way they were talking, what they said, you knew who the characters were.” –Elmore Leonard’
Desire
The reason why we struggle with a story is that we care about the
character. And we care about the character because we desire
something for them.” — Kurt Vonnegut, American novelist
Conflict
A story is all conflict. Tension. Problem. Yearning. These are the
forces that drive us forward.” — Donald Maass
Surprise makes Stories unforgettable
“Good stories surprise us. They make us think and feel. They stick in our minds and help us remember ideas and concepts in a way that a PowerPoint crammed with bar graphs never can.” — Joe Lazauskas and Shane Snow
Emotions make the story relatable
“The most amazing thing for me is that every single person who sees a movie, not necessarily one of my movies, brings a whole set of unique experiences, but through careful manipulation and good storytelling, you can get everybody to clap at the same time, to hopefully laugh at the same time, and to be afraid at the same time.” — Steven Spielberg, filmmake
Telling your story
“The world is shaped by two things — stories told and the memories they leave behind.” — Vera Nazarian
The universal theme
“All good stories are alike in some respects, and different in others.” –
Leo Tolstoy
Attract don’t repeal
“I want to tell a story. I want to draw you in and hold you. I want to
make you think. I want to make you laugh.I want to make you cry. I
want to make you wonder.” — Blake Snyder
Create a bond that matters
Stories are the currency of human connection.” — Kate Tempest
The hero journey
“The hero’s journey is a metaphor for life.”- JosephCampbell
The journey is the same but the experience is different
“I’m writing my story so that others might see fragments of themselves.” — Lena Waithe, screenwriter for Bones and Master of None
The Story Structure
“In the first act you get your hero up a tree. The second act, you throw rocks at him. For the third act you let him down.” — George Abbott
Stories leave a lasting impact
tell me the facts, and I’ll learn. Tell me the truth, and I’ll believe. But tell me a story, and it will live in heart forever.” –Native American Proverb
The Bottom Line
Looking back, I get why most people blend into the noise. No matter how loud they are, it’s not about volume it’s about focus. It’s about knowing who you are, what your story is, and why you’re telling it. When your story aligns with your purpose, everything else falls into place.
The best stories come from the heart. They surprise, challenge, and connect us. So, take a moment to reflect on your own story. What’s the one thing you want others to remember?
Your journey matters. Don’t let the noise drown it out. Find your voice, own your story, and let it inspire.
