a quote from a quote from the book I am reading: Hakawati (Storyteller) by Rabih Alameddine

...stories do not belong only to those who were present or to those who invent them, once a story has been told, its anyone's, it becomes common currency, it gets twisted and distorted, no story is told the same way twice or in quite the same words, not even if the same person tells the story twice, not even if there is only ever one storyteller... Javier Marias, Tomorrow in the Battle Think on Me