Character Quotes

Conflict is the place where character and plot intersect.

Women are mere "beauties" in men's culture so that culture can be kept male. When women in culture show character, they are not desirable, as opposed to the desirable, artless ingenue.

In war, character and opinion make more than half of the reality.

If a person has built a sound character, it makes but little difference what people say about him, because he will win in the end.

I always find it a little scary to say that I'm like a character.

It really wasn't my thing. It still isn't my thing, the whole science-fiction action thing. I prefer simpler, character-based movies.

What I love to do requires portraying different characters, and you have to separate your life from the role.

I was always attracted to characters that were in some level of turmoil or suffering because I had so much of that in my own life and I wanted to channel it. I was always into darker things.

Terrific! A successful blend of genres, complex and fascinating characters, and loads of suspense make 24 Bones a must-read.

Shakespeare's plays often turn on the idea of fate, as much drama does. What makes them so tragic is the gap between what his characters might like to accomplish and what fate provides them.

An honest, sincerely stated compliment helps to build character; criticism destroys it.

In all my characters, I try to find an iota of myself, and in Castle, I found a lot. He gets away with a lot, so that's fun.

'Desperate Housewives' is an ensemble cast, where I played a tertiary character. I made a lot of great friends, but that show didn't keep me very busy.

I relate to those characters - and any character I play - in as much as I put myself in their positions and feel how I would personally deal with their experiences.

When people embrace character, it informs their living, breathing moments in a scene so well.

The vogue of the New Negro . . . had all of the character of a public relations promotion. The Negro had to be "sold" to the public in terms they could understand.

My characters are all "just people" - people you might know - and the things that happen are things that anybody might do if they lived on a freighter that spent most of its time in the Deep Dark.

I'm not afraid of scars, be them emotional or otherwise. I think it builds character, and if it doesn't destroy you, I truly believe it makes us stronger.

It's much easier to put yourself out there under the guise of a character. You get a different name, different habits, different words. When I have to just be Nathan, that's when I feel vulnerable.

Anything that forces the human soul to scream out and fight really brings out the best in us, and to have an opportunity to portray characters like that is inspiring.

Those with whom we can apparently become well acquainted in a few moments are generally the most difficult to rightly know and to understand.

The authority of example and considerations of character, unlike pudding, are not whipped up in an instant.

The characters are complicated. The people you think are bad, may not be so bad, and the ones you think are good, may not be so good.

Television characters live inside our minds as though they're actual people. In fact, we know more about them than we do about most people in our physical lives.

The less attractive the character, the more I enjoyed writing them. Officious bureaucrats and PowerPoint weasels are where it's at for me.

Each acoustic guitar has its own character and personality. On a particular day, I might pick one up and start noodling around, looking for some emotional content in the chords.

I've been inspired by dreams - I've even stolen scenes or images or characters from them.

One of the things I'm concerned about is that I really want to make sure the races of all the characters are kept. I don't like it when black characters become white in movies, or things like that.

It's hard to know whether certain characters come to life or not, they either come to have their own life or they don't. I've written many things in which the characters just remain inert.

But the smoking is very frustrating. Who knows where it will go; where the story will go; where the character will go? There's still lots of options.

There are so many examples of talented actors working today, no matter how they live their private lives. I'm lucky that people believe me when I'm in character.

The person who builds a character makes foes.

It's usually easier for me to begin writing in a character's voice if that person is different from me in some significant way.

Most good fiction also has a character the writer seems to know more deeply than anyone can actually be known in life, but a few unusual writers can make something great without that.

Alice Munro is a particular kind of short story writer in that she writes long, character-driven short stories.

You know you are really famous the day you discover you have become a comic character!

I'm working on a project called Lemons, produced by Killer Films. The director has a great perspective on character development.

I find the constraints of drama actually freeing: It brings everything down to character and action.

If landscape is a character for me, then it helps if I'm familiar with it and I already have a take on it.

I'm pretty far from the character I play, so it's fun to mess around and be a 15-year-old again.

That's the main thing, looking for interesting characters, good directors, and experiences where you're growing and learning.

It's certainly more interesting for me as an actor, but I think it's also more interesting for the audience to see three-dimensional characters, rather than just a bad guy or a good guy.

That's sort of what I like about this character is that he's not the good guy, he's not truly the bad guy.

I think, above all, the characters in my novels feel universal to the readers.

Is it possible, I wonder, for a man to truly change? Or do character and habit form the immovable boundaries of our lives?

That'’s a way to increase the realism to the reader, if you want to get technical - you leave it [character] vague and you let the reader fill in the blanks with their imagination.

Most characters are composed of snippets here and there of people I've known, and all rolled into the character I've created. They do become like their own people.

Believe it or not, I don't collaborate with women, though my agent and editor are both females. For the most part, they do little editing on my characters.

While I find inspiration in real life, the actual stories are, thankfully, works of fiction - which, given the considerable turmoil in my character's lives, is probably a good thing!

Finding myself a nice and likeable character is a complete change.