I will tell you something about stories, [he said] They aren't just for entertainment. Don't be fooled They are all we have, you see, all we have to fight off illness and death. You don't have anything if you don't have the stories. Their evil is mighty but it can't stand up to our stories. So they try to destroy the stories let the stories be confused or forgotten They would like that They would be happy Because we would be defenseless then.

--From Leslie Marmon Silko, Ceremony

http://www.amazon.com/Ceremony-Contemporary-American-Fiction-Series/dp/0140086838