--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: And the stories she'd been told, were…" description: "\"“And the stories she'd been told, were they confessions of uncommitted crimes, accounts of the worst imaginable, imagined to keep fiction from becoming..." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/8b0/clive-barker-773_stories-told_and-the-stories-she-d-been-told-were-the_1395733.png" --- # And the stories she'd been told, were they confessions of… ![“And the stories she'd been told, were they confessions of uncommitted crimes, accounts of the worst imaginable, imagined to keep fiction from becoming fact? The thought chased its own tail: these terrible stories still needed a first cause, a well-spring from which they leaped... Were these…” quote by Clive Barker](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/8b0/clive-barker-773_stories-told_and-the-stories-she-d-been-told-were-the_1395733.png) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/8b0/clive-barker-773_stories-told_and-the-stories-she-d-been-told-were-the_1395733.png) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/8b0/clive-barker-773_stories-told_and-the-stories-she-d-been-told-were-the_1395733.png) > ““And the stories she'd been told, were they confessions of uncommitted crimes, accounts of the worst imaginable, imagined to keep fiction from becoming fact? The thought chased its own tail: these terrible stories still needed a first cause, a well-spring from which they leaped... Were these inventions common currency, as Purcell had claimed? Was there a place, however small, reserved in every heart for the monstrous?”” [Clive Barker](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/clive-barker/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. Stories can be both a mask and a mirror, reflecting hidden darkness while offering a way to understand the monstrous within. **In simple terms:** Stories reveal hidden darkness and help understand inner monsters. Key Takeaway Explore the shadows in narratives. Themes psychology fiction inner darkness Mood dark thought‑provoking Type literary psychological When to use this quote - reading horror - writing personal myths - therapy sessions Key Concepts mythic archetypes narrative therapy psychic exploration Questions to Reflect On - What does the 'monster' represent for you? - Can confronting fictional horror aid personal growth? A Different Perspective Stories may glorify violence rather than heal. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet ## Related quotes > [Laila Lalami has fashioned an absorbing story of one of the first encounters between Spanish conquistadores and Native Americans, a frightening, brutal, and much-falsified…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/salman-rushdie/laila-lalami-has-fashioned-an-absorbing-story-of-one-of-the-first/) [Salman Rushdie](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/salman-rushdie/) > [Don't spread fiction when you have no fact, it just creates friction and shows no tact.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/desmond-fouche/don-t-spread-fiction-when-you-have-no-fact-it-just-creates-friction/) [Desmond Fouche](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/desmond-fouche/) > [“Fiction and fact: only madmen and magistrates cannot discriminate between them.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alan-moore/fiction-and-fact-only-madmen-and-magistrates-cannot-discriminate/) [Alan Moore](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alan-moore/) > [“If woman had no existence save in the fiction written by men, one would imagine her a person of the utmost importance (...); as…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/virginia-woolf/if-woman-had-no-existence-save-in-the-fiction-written-by-men-one-2/) [Virginia Woolf](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/virginia-woolf/) > [“Resist demonstrating that your worldliness was more fiction than fact,” he whispered. “You, Lady Agatha, in the common parlance with which you are so…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/connie-brockway/resist-demonstrating-that-your-worldliness-was-more-fiction-than-fact/) [Connie Brockway](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/connie-brockway/) > [Reading things that are relevant to the facts of your life is of limited value. 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