51+ Best Quotes About Storytelling And The Magic Of Words

Storytelling is an interactive art where a person narrates a story to listeners.

Storytelling is an art form that is often underappreciated. Even though it may seem that storytelling is just another dialogue between the narrator and the listener, a lot of effort goes into igniting the imagination of the listeners through the storyteller's words and actions.

So, why not praise a storyteller by telling them how much you appreciate their hard work? Even simple compliments like "hey, great timing and delivery!" or "it was a joy listening to you" can go a long way in encouraging all the talented storytellers out there!

We have gathered the best storytelling quotes here to celebrate the art of storytelling. If you like what you read, do check out these reading quotes for kids and book lover quotes too!

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These famous quotes about the power of storytelling will tell you why it's so important to tell stories.

1. “For me, the drive is storytelling. To be a part of an art that tells a story and to be a catalyst, a color in that, is very exciting.”

- Alden Ehrenreich.

2. “Tell a relevant, targeted, transparent story, and the whole world will share it.”

- Randall Lane.

3. “If you wish to influence an individual or a group to embrace a particular value in their daily lives, tell them a compelling story.”

- Annette Simmons.

4. “You have to understand that the shortest distance between a human being and truth is a story.”

- Anthony de Mello.

5. “Storytelling is the essential human activity. The harder the situation, the more essential it is.”

- Tim O'Brien.

6. "Sometimes reality is too complex. Stories give it form."

- Jean Luc Godard.

7. “That’s what storytellers do. We restore order with imagination. We instill hope again and again.”

- Walt Disney.

8. “Great storytelling can make the difference between someone paying attention to you and someone just tuning you out.”

- Christopher S. Penn.

9. “If every event which occurred could be given a name, there would be no need for stories.”

- John Berger.

10. "Stories are memory aids, instruction manuals and moral compasses."

- Aleks Krotoski.

11. “We are all storytellers. We all live in a network of stories. There isn’t a stronger connection between people than storytelling.”

- Jimmy Neil Smith.

12. “Stories create community, enable us to see through the eyes of other people, and open us to the claims of others.”

- Peter Forbes.

13. “If you’re going to have a story, have a big story, or none at all.”

- Joseph Campbell.

14. “Great stories happen to those who can tell them.”

-  Ira Glass.

Stories matter in business too, and these quotes about why stories matter will show you how a good story can be a powerful way to achieve business goals.

15. "Give something of meaning to your audience by inspiring, engaging, and educating them with story. Stop marketing. Start storytelling."

- Laura Holloway.

16. “The most powerful person in the world is the storyteller. The storyteller sets the vision, values and agenda of an entire generation that is to come.”

- Steve Jobs.

17. "Storytelling is the mother of all ‘pull’ marketing strategies. It encourages dialogue, engagement and interaction among equals – an exchange of meaning between people."

- Bill Baker.

18. “Scratch the surface in a typical boardroom and we’re all just cavemen with briefcases, hungry for a wise person to tell us stories.”

- Alan Kay.

19. “Stories constitute the single most powerful weapon in a leader’s arsenal.”

- Dr. Howard Gardner.

20. "The stories we tell literally make the world. If you want to change the world, you need to change your story. This truth applies both to individuals and institutions."

- Michael Margolis.

21. “People do not buy goods & services. They buy relations, stories & magic.”

- Seth Godin.

22. “Storytelling is by far the most underrated skill when it comes to business.”

- Gary Vaynerchuk.

23. “Marketing is no longer about the stuff you make, but the stories you tell.”

- Seth Godin.

24. “Marketing is the art of telling a story that moves people to act.”

- Bernadette Jiwa.

25. “Every business has a story to tell.”

- Jay Baer.

26. "If a businessperson understands that his or her own mind naturally wants to frame experience in a story, the key to moving the audience is not to resist this impulse but to embrace it."

- Robert McKee.

27. “I realized the importance of having a story today is what really separates companies. People don’t just wear our shoes, they tell our story.”

- Blake Mycoskie.

Here are some inspirational storytelling quotes by famous authors that will make you reflect on the magical power of storytelling.

28. “To be a person is to have a story to tell.”

-  Isak Dinesen.

29. “If a story is not about the hearer he will not listen. And here I made a rule – a great and interesting story is about everyone or it will not last.”

- John Steinbeck.

30. “It's like everyone tells a story about themselves inside their own head. Always. All the time. That story makes you what you are. We build ourselves out of that story.”

- Patrick Rothfuss.

31. “We are, as a species, addicted to story. Even when the body goes to sleep, the mind stays up all night, telling itself stories.”

- Jonathan Gottschall.

32. “If history were taught in the form of stories, it would never be forgotten.”

- Rudyard Kipling.

33. “Story, as it turns out, was crucial to our evolution -- more so than opposable thumbs. Opposable thumbs let us hang on; story told us what to hang on to.”

- Lisa Cron.

34. "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."

- Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.

35. “No story lives unless someone wants to listen. The stories we love best do live in us forever. So whether you come back by page or by the big screen, Hogwarts will always be there to welcome you home.”

- J. K. Rowling.

36. “Inside each of us is a natural-born storyteller, waiting to be released.”

- Robin Moore.

37. “A story has no beginning or end: arbitrarily one chooses that moment of experience from which to look back or from which to look ahead.”

- Graham Greene.

38. "The human species thinks in metaphors and learns through stories."

- Mary Catherine Bateson.

39. “Stories have to be told or they die, and when they die, we can't remember who we are or why we're here.”

- Sue Monk Kidd.

40. “I like a good story well told. That is the reason I am sometimes forced to tell them myself.”

- Mark Twain.

41. “I could not stop talking because now I had started my story, it wanted to be finished. We cannot choose where to start and stop. Our stories are the tellers of us.”

- Chris Cleave.

42. “Stories are a communal currency of humanity.”

- Tahir Shah.

43. “God made man because He loves stories.”

- Elie Wiesel.

44. “The true alchemists do not change lead into gold; they change the world into words.”

- William H. Gass.

45. "The fact of storytelling hints at a fundamental human unease, hints at human imperfection. Where there is perfection there is no story to tell."

- Ben Okri.

46. “The power of storytelling is exactly this: to bridge the gaps where everything else has crumbled.”

- Paulo Coelho.

47. "You're never going to kill storytelling, because it's built into the human plan. We come with it."

- Margaret Atwood.

48. “The storytelling gift is innate: one has it or one doesn’t. But style is at least partly a learned thing: one refines it by looking and listening and reading and practice – by work.”

- Donna Tartt.

49. "'You’re a storyteller. Dream up something wild and improbable,' she pleaded. 'Something beautiful and full of monsters... All the best stories are.'"

- Laini Taylor.

50. “There’s always room for a story that can transport people to another place.”

- J.K. Rowling.

51. “The purpose of a storyteller is not to tell you how to think, but to give you questions to think upon.”

-  Brandon Sanderson.

52. “After nourishment, shelter and companionship, stories are the thing we need most in the world.”

- Philip Pullman.

53. “Storytelling is the most powerful way to put ideas into the world today.”

- Robert McKee.

Here at Kidadl, we have carefully created lots of interesting family-friendly quotes for everyone to enjoy! If you liked our suggestions for quotes about storytelling then why not take a look at these [quotes about creating] or magic quotes too?