Don't worry about meaning. If a story's any good, it can't…

“The meaning of a story should go on expanding for the reader the more he thinks about it, but meaning cannot be captured in…

— Flannery O'Connor

I don't want to tell what the songs are about for me, because then people can't decide for themselves, which is why I write;…

— Brian Fallon

“Does it ever occur to such reviewers that the meaning of the story might lie in the language itself, in the movement of the…

— Ursula K. Le Guin

The writer's job, after all, is not to dictate meaning, but to give the reader enough pieces to create his or her own satisfying…

— Celeste Ng

“I need to use everything—sound, image, performance—to get at the full meaning of the story”

— Toni Morrison

The history of Israel and Judaism is the unfolding of the meaning of this story. It's retelling is never finished and will not be…

— Timothy Radcliffe

The meaning of the story is the story.

— Flannery O'Connor

“All narrative begins for me as listening. When I read, I listen. When I write, I listen—for silence, inflection, rhythm, rest. Then comes the…

— Toni Morrison

“I don’t think meaning exists without form, and certainly form does not exist without meaning. Meaning and story come first. Story is the most…

— Percival Everett

“A nurse later told me that I was her ‘”One.” Meaning, I was her one story of hope to tell others who are facing…

— Matthew J. Murphy

Because the meaning of a story does not lie on its surface, visible and self-defining, does not mean that meaning does not exist. Indeed,…

— Joyce Carol Oates

It is gorgeously shot, and Andrew believes that the old school way of making films in the best way. Meaning: you have a story,…

— Michael Berryman

“talking about the “meaning” of a story, we need to be careful not to diminish it, impoverish it. A story can say different things…

— Ursula K. Le Guin

“Which is why books are such a lifeline. Stepping into the pages of someone else’s story means joining them in their normal life and…

— Joanna Davidson Politano

“To love someone is to put yourself in their place, we say, which is to put ourself in their story, or figure out how…

— Rebecca Solnit