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Stories and narratives are one of the most powerful things in humanity. They're devices for dealing with the chaotic danger of existence.

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

There are many reasons I love novels with multiple narratives. In novels where the events are filtered through the consciousness of a single 'reliable' narrator, I often wonder, is this the whole story? What could be missing here?

My sister-in-law believes that few narratives are so tightly constructed that you can't skip boring bits and still keep abreast of what's going on.

I think there are narratives going on all the time that we think of as tangential - up until they turn out to be deciding factors in our lives.

People need a narrative, and if there isn't one on offer, they make one up.

If you do weave one-liners into a story, you have to have an overall story as well, otherwise it doesn't really count as narrative.

There's a problem with narratives. Most that spring to mind are fictional.

There are only two or three human stories, and they go on repeating themselves as fiercely as if they had never happened before.

A narrative is like a room on whose walls a number of false doors have been painted; while within the narrative, we have many apparent choices of exit, but when the author leads us to one particular door, we know it is the right one because it opens.