Humans like stories. Humans need stories. Stories are good. Stories work. Story clarifies and captures the essence of the human spirit. Story, in all its forms—of life, of love, of knowledge—has traced the upward surge of mankind. And story, you mark my words, will be with the last human to draw breath.
Interpretation
Stories are an essential part of human existence, shaping our understanding and connection to life.
This quote by Jasper Fforde emphasizes the fundamental role that storytelling plays in human life. It suggests that stories are not only important for communication and understanding but also serve as a vital medium through which the essence of humanity is expressed and preserved across generations. Stories unite us, help us make sense of our experiences, and will continue to exist as long as humanity does.
In practice
During a conference on creativity, this quote can be used to highlight the importance of storytelling in innovation.
I didn't set out to discover a truth. I was actually sent to the Outer Fringes to conduct a chair census and learn some humility. But the truth inevitably found me, as important truths often do, like a lost thought in need of a mind.
Whereas story is processed in the mind in a straightforward manner, poetry bypasses rational thought and goes straight to the limbic system and lights it up like a brushfire. It's the crack cocaine of the literary world.
When I'm dead, I want to be remembered as a musician of some worth and substance.
The beauty and genius of a work of art may be reconceived, though its first material expression be destroyed; a vanished harmony may yet again inspire the composer; but when the last individual of a race of living things breathes no more, another heaven and another earth must pass before such a one can be again.
So often when Black men have to play roles on TV, we're either the noble savage or we're completely a savage, and there's no nuance.
Today, comics is one of the very few forms of mass communication in which individual voices still have a chance to be heard.
In cinema, the leading player is the director.
I've always felt toward the slightest scene, even if all I had to do in a scene was just to come in and say, 'Hi,' that the people ought to get their money's worth and that this is an obligation of mine, to give them the best you can get from me.
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