Storytelling quotes

“- Matilda: There once was a meerkat who lived in the jungle. He was hungry, but he was small. So small. And the other big animals had all the food, because they could reach the fruits. So he made friends with a hippopotamus to...
- Max: Okay, stop. It doesn't end well for the meerkat.
- Matilda: Yes it does, because he can stand on the...” (continue)(continue reading)
Emma Tremblay - Matilda
Matt Damon - Max

The story is not quite as you were told, and I should know, for I was the one they called "Sleeping Beauty". In the end, my kingdom was united not by a hero or a villain, as legend had predicted, but by one who was both hero and villain. And her name was Maleficent.
Janet McTeer - Narrator

“- Sonny Storm: Who... who are you?
- Andy Stewart: That's a very long story. You got a few minutes?”
Zachary Rosencrantz - Sonny Storm
Kelly LeBrock - Andy Stewart

“- Paulie: It's a long story.
- Misha Vilyenkov: I'm Russian. I like long stories!”

Jay Mohr - Paulie
Tony Shalhoub - Misha Vilyenkov

“His story's so stupid it's probably true.”
Kevin Spacey - Michael Lynch

“- Walt Disney: I have my own Mr. Banks. Mine had a mustache.
- P.L. Travers: So it's not true that Disney created man in his own image?
- Walt Disney: No, but it is true that you created yourself in someone else, yes?”
Tom Hanks - Walt Disney
Emma Thompson - P.L. Travers

“- Charles Godwin: Louisa tells me you have a story about firelight.
- Elisabeth Laurier: Yes. I tell her Firelight is a magic time, when times stands still.
- Charles Godwin: Why'd you tell her that?
- Elisabeth Laurier: I find it helps. A time with no rules at the end of the day.”
Stephen Dillane - Charles Godwin
Sophie Marceau - Elisabeth Laurier

- Ted Crawford: You know, my grandfather was an egg farmer.
- Willy Beachum: This isn't going to be about your, uh, "rough childhood," is it?
Philip Anthony Hopkins - Ted Crawford
Ryan Gosling - Willy Beachum

- Grandpa Gustafson: And finally, the baby bear looked and he said, "Somebody's sleeping in my bed, and the bastard's still there!" But Goldylocks had a Remington semi-automatic, with a scope and a hair-trigger!
- Allie, Melanie's Daughter: That's not the way it goes!
- Grandpa Gustafson: And that was the end of the Three Bears.
Burgess Meredith - Grandpa Gustafson
Katie Sagona - Allie, Melanie's Daughter

“- John Patrick Mason: I'm sure all this will make a great bed time story to tell your kid.
- Stanley Goodspeed: You're insane, Mason. The kid'll have nightmares. I'll spend all my money on shrinks.”
Sir Sean Connery - John Patrick Mason
Nicolas Cage - Stanley Goodspeed

“- Stoick: When I was a boy...
- Gobber: Oh here we go.
- Stoick: My father told me to bang my head against a rock and I did it! I thought I was crazy, but I didn't question him. And you know what happened?
- Gobber: You got a headache.
- Stoick: That rock split in two! It taught me what a Viking can do, Gobber, he can, he can crush mountains,...” (continue)(continue reading)
Gerard Butler - Stoick
Craig Ferguson - Gobber

“A life is like a book. A book is like a box. A box has six sides. Inside and outside, so, how do you get to what's inside? How do you get what's inside, out? Once upon a time, there lived a very pretty girl, who lived in a beautiful box, and everybody loved her.”
Angelina Jolie - Gia Carangi

“- Carter: What are you so afraid of?
- Edward: Just because I told you my story, does not invite you to be a part of it!”
Morgan Freeman - Carter
Jack Nicholson - Edward

“Should you think this is just a shaggy dog story told by a senile man to his impressionable grandson, I'd ask you to come to South Wales, to the village where I was born, and as you drive north from Cardiff, look for the first big hill. Not just a hill, but a mountain, and the children of the people who built it. However, just before this film...” (continue)(continue reading)
Jack Walters - Grandfather

“- Stefan Vanderhoof: They had the same prance, the same rhythm, it was like they were two members of the same body.
- Scott Donlan: I knew a guy who had two members on the same body, dated him for about a half hour, got so exhausted. I'm sorry, go on, you were telling a story?”

Michael McKean - Stefan Vanderhoof
John Michael Higgins - Scott Donlan

“Heroes know that things must happen when it is time for them to happen. A quest may not simply be abandoned; unicorns may go unrescued for a long time, but not forever; a happy ending cannot come in the middle of the story.”
Jeff Bridges - Prince Lir

“Destiny's a pretty big concept, when you think about it. Where you are in life, how you got there, what would have happened if one thing or another had been different. To be honest, I never gave it much thought, myself, until today, June 14th, my 35th birthday, and without a doubt, the strangest day of my life. Do you remember the old story that...” (continue)(continue reading)
Jim Belushi - Larry Burrows

“- Female Writer: Husband says, 'Darling, you can't leave. What would it take to make you stay?'.
- Father Writer: She says, 'Try chloroform'. Ha! Ha!
- Son Writer: This isn't a comedy.
- Female Writer: That wasn't a joke.”
Anne De Salvo - Female Writer
Robert Klein - Father Writer
Peter MacNicol - Son Writer

“- Levi Rockwell: Pay attention to Dwayne. He's got a new joke he wants to tell us. It's about belly dancers. You're on, Dwayne.
- Dwayne Hanson: Dad, you're putting me on the spot, here. They're going to put tomatoes on yo-yos so they can hit me twice.”
Burt Lancaster - Levi Rockwell
Kevin Spacey - Dwayne Hanson

“- Roy O'Bannon: So who are you?
- Chon Wang: I'm an Imperial Guard to the Emperor of China.
- Roy O'Bannon: China... what's with the book?
- Chon Wang: The book belongs to Princess Pei Pei. She was kidnapped from the Forbidden City.
- Roy O'Bannon: I like that, Forbidden City, a princess, kidnapped! It's so mysterious.”
Owen Wilson - Roy O'Bannon
Jackie Chan - Chon Wang

“I got on the train to run away, but a person tried to touch my no-no special place! And when I got back, there were bikers here. And they tied me up, Uncle Martin, and then they told me stories that they do on their bikes. Some of them were fun but some of them were scary!”
Martin Hayter Short - Clifford Daniels

I'm Don "The Goods" Ready. Everyone here told you their story, here's mine... I have hair on my balls and I sell cars. The end.
Jeremy Piven - Don Ready

My father asked me a series of questions that suddenly make me wonder if I understood even my father, whom I felt closer to than any man I have ever known. "You like to tell true stories?". He asked and I answered: "yes, I like to tell stories that are true". Then he asked: "after you have finished your true stories sometime, why don't you make... (continue)(continue reading)
Robert Redford - Narrator

“- Margot Frank: You mustn't do that.
- Anne Frank: I can't help it, I like watching people. I make up stories for them; imagining what their lives are like, what ours would be like, if...”

Jessica Manley - Margot Frank
Hannah Taylor Gordon - Anne Frank

“That script of yours has all the right elements. I mean it's got good characters and a terrific story. I don't know if you agree with me but I think story is the most important element of a script.”
Martin Landau - Jack Roth