If a story is not about the hearer he [or she] will not listen . . . A great lasting story is about everyone or it will not last. The strange and foreign is not interesting — only the deeply personal and familiar.

If a story is not about the hearer, he will not listen. And here I make a rule — a great and interesting story is about everyone or it will not last.

And, of course, people are interested only in themselves. If a story is not about the hearer he will not listen.

A man who tells secrets or stories must think of who is hearing or reading, for a story has as many versions as it has readers. Everyone takes what he wants or can from it and thus changes it to his measure. Some pick out parts and reject the rest, some strain the story through their mesh of prejudice, some paint it with their own delight. A story must have some points of contact with the reader to make him feel at home in it. Only then can he accept wonders.

It is obvious that the only interesting people are interested people, and to be completely interested is to have forgotten about “I.

Not all stories speak to all listeners, but all listeners can find a story that does, somewhere, sometime. In one form or another.

Our lives are stories, and the stories we have to give to each other are the most important. No one has a story too small and all are of equal stature. We each tell them in different ways, through different mediums — and if we care about each other, we'll take the time to listen.

You don’t really understand people until you hear their life story. If you know their stories, you grasp their history, their hurts, their hopes and aspirations. You put yourself in their shoes. And just by virtue of listening and remembering what’s important to them, you communicate that you care and desire to add value.

I think the best stories always end up being about the people rather than the event, which is to say character-driven.

Stories are as unique as the people who tell them, and the best stories are in which the ending is a surprise.

Make it interesting and it will be true: this is what story writers live by.

My story is important not because it is mine, God knows, but because if I tell it anything like right, the chances are you will recognize that in many ways it is also yours… it is precisely through these stories in all their particularity, as I have long believed and often said, that God makes himself known to each of us more powerfully and personally. If this is true, it means that to lose track of our stories is to be profoundly impoverished not only humanly but also spiritually.

Everyone has a unique story. To hear these stories, and to understand the world around you, from the beliefs and values of a community to the experiences of the people in it, you simply have to take the time to notice and to ask “I wonder why?

People from different parts of the world can respond to the same story if it says something to them about their own history and their own experience.