The Storyteller Quotes in Ten Canoes (2006)

The group: [all walking in a line]

Canoeist: Everyone stop!

[all stop and turn]

The Storyteller: That one is Djigirr. Djigirr talk too much, but maybe he heard something.

Canoeist: I refuse to walk at the end. Someone ahead keeps farting.

The group: [laughter] Not me. Not me.

Canoeist: It's you again. You're always so silent. Silent but deadly. Admit it.

Canoeist: Alright, it's me.

Canoeist: You're rotten inside.

Canoeist: I'm rotten inside.

Canoeist: You get to the end of line.

[first lines]

The Storyteller: This is the story of a story. Once upon a time there was this story, and the story said to itself, how should I begin?

Hector: Try the usual way.

The Storyteller: What, in the dark with a man and a woman, in a story that is still to tell itself?

Hector: Well, you've got to start somewhere. Say, long long ago... Or, far far away... Or, another time in a different distant country... Or just, once...

The Storyteller: That's good. "Far away", so you know the place is close to your own heart. "Once" is nice, so we know that it always happens. Hmm, Once there was this hero...

Hector: [wryly] Some hero.

The Storyteller: Some man then. Any man. Say, a man, a woman, and some children. Don't forget the children.

The Storyteller: They were as close to friends as two mutual slaves to money may be.

The Storyteller: You only have to remember that what you have done in your life may change what someone else is doing in their life and so therefore, your life continues in their eyes.

The Storyteller: People need other people.