“People who understand everything get no stories.”

What kind of times are they, when A talk about trees is almost a crime Because it implies silence about so many horrors?

Even hatred of vileness Distorts a mans features.

Recently my fingers have developed a prejudice against comparatives. They all follow this pattern: a squirrel is smaller than a tree; a bird is more musical than a tree.

You have to attack once the truth is too weak to defend itself.

One can describe the world of today to the people of today only if one describes it as capable of alteration.

I am a playwright. I show What I have seen. In the man markets I have seen how men are traded. That I show, I, the playwright.

What rapture, oh, it is to know A good thing when you see it And having seen a good thing, oh, What rapture ’tis to flee it.

When the leaders speak of peace The common folk know That war is coming When the leaders curse war

Life is short and so is money.

With drooping shoulders The majority sit hunched, their foreheads furrowed like Stony ground that has been repeatedly ploughed-up to no purpose.

Whenever there are great virtues, it’s a sure sign something’s wrong.

The alienation effect in German epic theater is achieved not only through the actors, but also through music (chorus and song) andsets (transparencies, film strips, etc.). Its main purpose is to place the staged events in their historical context.

War is like love, it always finds a way.

Love is the wish to give, not to receive.

There are men who struggle for a day and they are good. There are men who struggle for a year and they are better. There are men who struggle many years, and they are better still. But there are those who struggle all their lives: These are the indispensable ones.

Suppose they gave a war, and nobody came? Why then, the war would come to you!

The story of America is necessarily one of progress because if it’s not than it’s a stale story where we have not risen above Klansmen.

I emphasize to C.E.O.s, you have to have a story in the minds of the employees. It’s hard to memorize objectives, but it’s easy to remember a story.

If stories come to you, care for them. And learn to give them away where they are needed. Sometimes a person needs a story more than food to stay alive.

A picture story just doesn’t run like a film. It doesn’t have 24 frames per second. It doesn’t deal with this illusion of movement. It’s more like if you did an illuminated novel.

The idea that the story is true is more important than being able to prove that it’s true.

I love telling stories, and am almost entirely unable to keep a secret.

With hip-hop music, it allowed me to talk about political and social things but also to tell stories.

Don’t ask your readers to admire your words when you want them to believe your story.