In boxing, where most of the guys are from lower-class backgrounds and have darker skin than most of the fans, one might fear that the athletes are being exploited. But that narrative doesn't hold up very well in the world of MMA, where 99 percent of fighters are amateurs who will never earn a dime. They aren't seeking fame and fortune. For the most part, these guys are fighting because they want to and because it gives them an opportunity to strive for something big in their lives. It gives them a chance to become their best selves.
No matter how stark the reality, a human being fits it into a narrative that is palatable.
Eloquence must be grounded on the plainest narrative.
I came to New York, and it was a really cool time. People like Jim Jarmusch and Spike Lee were making their first movies, and they were making movies that were personal narratives.
If I believe that abortion is wrong, and I want to convince you that it's wrong, there's no reason I should recount to you my personal narrative of how I came to believe this.
Objects are better than text at conveying narrative
The truth about life was that nothing ever ended until you died, and even then you just left a whole bunch of unresolved narratives behind you.
What is a memory? Not a storehouse, not a trunk in the attic, but an instrument that constantly refines the past into a narrative, accessible and acceptable to oneself.
The tricks of magic follow the archetypes of narrative fiction — there are tales of creation and loss, death and resurrection, and obstacles that must be overcome.
It turns up the heat under a narrative when you limit the characters in their movements or their freedoms.
Rex Stout's narrative and dialogue could not be improved, and he passes the supreme test of being rereadable. I don't know how many times I have reread the Wolfe stories, but plenty. I know exactly what is coming and how it is all going to end, but it doesn't matter. That's writing.
Even a poor translator couldn't kill a style that moves with such narrative clarity.
One of the things that's important about family is the narrative history they create for themselves.
Mann was conscious of adopting different perspectives in different parts of the novella, but my guess is that there are plenty of passages in which the resonance of the words he chose struck him as exactly right (even though he didn't probe to discover exactly what tone or narrative device gave them that effect).
The narrative impulse is always with us; we couldn't imagine ourselves through a day without it.
I think human beings wouldn't be human without narrative fiction.
By all means, avoid words—threats, complaints, justification, narratives, reframing, attempts to win arguments, supplications; avoid words!
We all love narratives where we're the captain of our boat, and Americans love them more than anybody else.
Music and film are parallel experiences: they are linear, they are narrative.
Photos have no narrative content. They only describe light on surface.