“Historical sense and poetic sense should not, in the end, be contradictory, for if poetry is the little myth we make, history is the big myth we live, and in our living, constantly remake.”

“By means of our myths and legends we maintain a sense of what we are worth and who we are. Without them we should undoubtedly go mad.”

“Myths are, in fact...neither primitive nor untrue. They are, rather, a kind of poetry that helps us make sense of the world and our place in it.”

“A myth is an image in terms of which we try to make sense of the world.”

“A myth is a way of making sense in a senseless world. Myths are narrative patterns that give significance to our existence.”

“We must remember that there is a great difference between a myth and a miracle. A myth is the idealization of a fact. A miracle is the counterfeit of a fact. There is the same difference between a myth and a miracle that there is between fiction and falsehood -- between poetry and perjury. Miracles belong to the far past and the far future. The little line of sand, called the present, between the seas, belongs to common sense to the natural.”