The story—from Rumplestiltskin to War and Peace—is one of the basic tools invented by the human mind for the purpose of understanding. There have been great societies that did not use the wheel, but there have been no societies that did not tell stories. – Ursula K. Le Guin

Time, the earth, and death are living things, as stories are — so long as other living things exist to feed them, and for them to nourish in their turn. – Robert Bringhurst, 1995, Introduction to The Dreamer Awakes by Alice Kane

I will open my mouth in a parable
I will utter dark sayings of old.
Things that we have heard and known,
that our fathers told us.
We will not hide them from their children,
but tell it to the coming generations. – Bible