In Others' Words: Treading the Stories' Paths

"[The very existence of stories] overlays a faint but insistent pattern on the chaos that is history.  Stories etch grooves deep enough for people to follow in the same way that water follows certain paths down a mountainside.  And every time fresh actors tread the path of the story, the groove runs deeper."  (From Witches Abroad, by Terry Pratchett.)