Stories For Speakers And Writers

Parts that Didn’t Have Names In a New York Times article about actors who play the minor roles, Stephen Tobolowsky gives a superb tribute. H...

Chuck Swindoll tells this story: A young fella rushed into a service station and asked the manager if he had a pay phone. The manager nodded...

Jay O’Callahan, in his talk on the Power of Storytelling highlights the value of appreciations. My friend Doug Lipman has a wonderful book ...

In a talk on The Power of Storytelling Jay O’Callahan tells this story to illustrate the power of images: Years ago I was in Detroit and a ...

Jimmy Carter, human rights advocate, international mediator and house builder was asked to reflect on his life—engineer, naval officer, pean...

On Larry King Live , the evening after Bill Maher was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, King asked Maher how he felt: MAHER: As ...

Stan McChrystal, the four-star US Army general who was fired in June 2010 from commanding the Afghan war because of his derisive comments, i...

When you check into a Sheraton hotel room these days you have a new message you can hang on your doorknob to keep the housekeeper away. Ins...

Two intrepid Irish boys used to spend their days exploring the rolling countryside. They journeyed over rivers and through valleys, past far...

All their lives the two young brothers had lived in the city behind great stone walls and never saw field nor meadow. But one day they decid...

During the reign of Oliver Cromwell, the British government began to run low on silver for coins. Lord Cromwell sent his men to the local ca...

Time overseas recently convinced me of the need to take a longer time out from some regular activities such as blogging. I plan to undertake...

In a letter to poets in the former Soviet Republic of Georgia, Russian Nobel laureate Boris Pasternak observed: “One must write wonderful th...

Thanks to Barrie Hibbert for passing on this story. In the October 2009 issue of the magazine Canonmills Baptist Church (Edinburgh), Tom Fle...

Ira Glass , the host of This American Life explains the art of constructing a great story. Momentum He looks at the building blocks of a co...

Thanks to my friend Simon Holt for this quote by Jürgen Moltmann on the busyness of humanity, the contemporary ‘distress of time’ and the ad...

It is always good advice to listen to experienced storytellers if you honing up your skills in telling a story. Thanks to Metafilter and Ab...

I am a great fan of Hugh MacLeod . On his web site, Gaping Void , he describes himself in these terms: * I'm a cartoonist. * I sell limi...

Ricky Gervais, the comedian and the Director of The Office and The Invention of Lying , tells in an interview…about his ‘born again’ experi...

Montblanc , the Swiss luxury pen maker has issued a $23,000 pen to commemorate the birth of Mahatma Gandhi (October 2, 1869). The limited-ed...

Another suicide this week of a France Telecom worker, adding to a spate of suicides at the partially state-run firm, prompted Rupert Wright ...

Sir Michael Parkinson, the king of the TV chat show, has interviewed John Lennon, Katherine Hepburn, Nelson Mandela and more than 3,000 peop...

John Lennon, the English rock musician and member of 'The Beatles' was asked in an interview whether his song Lucy in the Sky With D...

Shit Happens! I’ve never thought much about the expression, ‘Shit Happens’ until last week when I visited an Elephant Orphanage in Sri Lanka...

This video urges us to think about making our lives count, improving the lot of others and shaping our world for good. Link Nitin Nohria ...