To have frequent recourse to narrative betrays great want of imagination.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
Stories and narratives are one of the most powerful things in humanity. They're devices for dealing with the chaotic danger of existence.
The purpose of narrative is to present us with complexity and ambiguity.
Imagination allows us to escape the predictable. It enables us to reply to the common wisdom that we cannot soar by saying, 'Just watch!'
It is the creator of fiction's point of view; it is the character who interests him. Sometimes he wants to convince the reader that the story he is telling is as interesting as universal history.
Storytelling enables us to play out decisions before we make them, to plan routes before we take them, to work out the campaign before we start the war, to rehearse the phrases we're going to use to please or placate our wives and husbands.
Imagination was given to man to compensate him for what he is not; a sense of humor to console him for what he is.
Fiction is optimistic or unrealistic enough to demand that there should be a meaningful narrative.
The impulse to write comes, I think, from a desire - perhaps a need - to give imaginative life to experience, to share it with the reader, not to cover up the truth but to deliver it obliquely.
The power of storytelling is to free us from isolation, shame, and whatever the situation.
Narrative has been part of human consciousness for a long time. And if it has played a part in all those thousands of years, it will know a trick or two. It will be wise. It will be mischievous. It will be helpful. It will be generous.