Narrative Voice Quotes

“Why are you running? You know he won’t be there. You KNOW he won’t be there. If you forgot, check your pocket. Pull out your phone and look at the last message in your inbox. What does it say? Oh yes, it says ‘I won’t be there’."

"Fantastic timing for you to become the voice of reason, Shadow," I pant. "Are you trying to make me change my mind?"

"Not at all, this is a thrill for me. I just didn’t know there would be running involved. Can I change your mind about that?”
― Aura Biru, We Are Everyone

“Have you forgotten about our fox?

The one who now had an eye for beauty, and an inclination to set it apart from other things . . .”
― Helen Oyeyemi, Mr. Fox

“I almost forgot to mention another fox I know of—a very wicked fox indeed. But you are tired of hearing about foxes now, so I won't go on.”
― Helen Oyeyemi, Mr. Fox

“A writer’s voice is the distinct fashion peculiar to a writer in which he pieces together words.”
― Adewale Joel, Learn Creative Writing: A guide to writing perfect drafts

“the voice is simply the emotions and thoughts of the writer
expressed through the eyes of the character, his behavior, thoughts, actions, dialogues and affectations.”
― Adewale Joel, Learn Creative Writing: A guide to writing perfect drafts

“JADE: picture that this is all you have ever known of this story. the only way it would ever occur to you that the story could be understood by another.

JADE: and then, one day, you meet me.

JADE: you look me up and down, and regard me as the discrete, specific individual that i am.

JADE: and i decide to tell you this story again, using my own voice.

JADE: and it sounds exactly like this:

JADE: a martyr died and said fuck.

ARADIA: huh...

JADE: does this change the way you perceive the story you were originally familiar with?

ARADIA: i guess a little bit

ARADIA: it’s certainly a different way of hearing it

ARADIA: but at least you didnt change any words so i guess its not all that different

JADE: exactly.

JADE: i didn’t change any words.

JADE: but then, it was a very short story i told, wasn’t it?

ARADIA: sure was

JADE: now imagine it was much longer, and that was only the first line.

ARADIA: thats easy to imagine

ARADIA: his was a long story

JADE: quite true.

JADE: a story as short as the one we’ve been using cannot accomplish much when it comes to guiding and manipulating one’s awareness and emotions.

JADE: it is compact, ostensibly commanding a simple and meditative moment of reflection, as a short poem might.

JADE: the narrative it delivers is freighted with inference. it is a pattern imprinted upon the imagination consisting solely of cognitive dark matter, or a sort of notional negative space.

JADE: but longer stories have the power to draw consciousness into them. they possess arresting and hypnotic qualities which can be used by their tellers to alter the awareness of the listener.

JADE: again, i’d like you to imagine this is the only way you’ve ever known this story.

JADE: but then it continues...

JADE: a martyr died and said fuck.

JADE: his final howl of profanity reverberated through the ages.

JADE: it inspired his devotees during the darkest times of a brutal regime.

JADE: his lessons were guarded, kept secret, espoused in the shadows of tyranny.

JADE: a vision of peace would inspire those who’d never conceived of it.

JADE: and though his death was gruesome, it opened the world to a feeling of hope.

JADE: this hope echoed through the ages.

JADE: it gave his disciples the strength to persist as they perished in droves.

JADE: it was the only light to shine on a dark planet for millions of sweeps.

JADE: and if you are one so devoted to his teachings, who sees truth in his words,

JADE: it may be said with great authority that you are wrong.

JADE: you are foolish to believe his lies. his martyrdom is false, his sacrifice hollow.

JADE: repent for your adherence to this illusion now, and perhaps leniency will be your reward.

ARADIA: 0_0

ARADIA: what just happened there

JADE: i brought to your attention that the story you were listening to had a speaker with a specific identity.

JADE: and where there is an identity, there can also be an agenda.

JADE: i gained the power to bend your consciousness to become more amenable to my narrative agenda by lulling you into a more receptive state through the established rhythm of the story’s telling.

JADE: this was only possible because you were not initially questioning the identity of the teller, or even considering that there was an identity to consider.

ARADIA: i guess youre right

JADE: hence, we may view any story as speakerless, or spoken, so as to bring designations to the duality i have just presented.”
― Andrew Hussie

“She squints her one eye, and points. I follow her direction, and land upon a group of girls. We immediately paint their lives, as if we are the screenwriters of their story. I wonder is this what God feels like?”
― Madi Fiely

“It's not so much that history is written by the victors, as the old saying goes, but the powerful do often have the capacity to make themselves heard and to erase the voices of others.”
― Elizabeth Boyle, Fierce Appetites: Loving, Losing and Living to Excess in My Present and in the Writings of the Past