Advice From Old Storytellers


 Shakespeare quotes related to storytelling:





Source: 

http://stevedenning.com/Business-Narrative/quotations-on-storytelling.aspx

RICHARD. Be eloquent in my behalf to her.
ELIZABETH. An honest tale speeds best being plainly told.
RICHARD. Then plainly to her tell my loving tale.

William Shakespeare, Richard III, (Act IV, scene iv)

 

 A sad tale's best for winter.
I have one of sprites and goblins.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616) A Winter's Tale (Act II, scene i)

 

Yet by your gracious patience,
I will a round unvarnished tale deliver.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616) Othello (Act I, scene iii)

 

And so, from hour to hour, we ripe and ripe,
And then from hour to hour, we rot and rot;
And thereby hangs a tale.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616) As You Like it, (Act II, scene ii)

But that I am forbid
To tell the secrets of my prison-house,
I could a tale unfold whose lightest word
Would harrow up thy soul, freeze thy young blood,
Make thy two eyes, like stars, start from their spheres,
Thy knotted and combined locks to part,
And each particular hair to stand an end,
Like quills upon the fretful porpentine.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616) Hamlet, Act I, scene v

 
Horatio, what a wounded name,
Things standing thus unknown, shall live behind me.
If thou didst ever hold me in thy heart,
Absent thee from felicity awhile,
And in this harsh world draw thy breath in pain,
To tell my story.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616) Hamlet, Act V, Scene ii

Source:

http://theadventurouswriter.com/blogwriting/5-writing-secrets-from-william-shakespeare-the-bard/

Since brevity is the soul of wit and tediousness the limbs and outward flourishes, I will be brief.  

–Hamlet: Act 2, Scene ii

 

You cram these words into mine ears against the stomach of my sense. 

–The Tempest: Act 2, Scene i

 

They have been at a great feast of languages, and stolen the scraps.

 –Love’s Labours Lost: Act V, Scene i

 

Have more than thou showest; speak less than thou knowest. –King Lear: Act 1, Scene iv

Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice.  –Hamlet: Act 1 Scene iii

Words, words, mere words, no matter from the heart. –Troilus and Cressida: Act 5, Scene iii

Check out this site.

http://www.poynter.org/how-tos/writing/248954/the-shakespeare-sentence-that-changed-my-writing-and-can-change-yours-draft/

“The Queen, my lord, is dead.”

The Shakespeare sentence that changed my writing – and can change yours