Character Quotes

I could imagine that a character could do almost anything at any time, and that was the freedom of the whole thing. But keeping track of what was plausible for certain characters [was the challenge].

A story is built on characters and reasons.

With any period piece I think the thing to do is forget that it's not contemporary when you're writing and to have the characters feel as much as possible like characters that you would know.

I read more and more and I came across this character, Caroline Weldon. Sometimes in history, you find these people that no one would dare create. They're too mad.

It was great fun to do because of the central character. With The Girl in the Spider's Web, the girl is really the central character. She's the whole thing.

I'm probably more character-driven than plot-driven. It's rare for me to attach myself to an idea for a story.

Men tend to define themselves by what they do, and so if you're dealing with a character who's trying to figure that out, or multiple characters, then there's something there for guys, too.

"A meteor hits planet Earth" - that's a story idea but that doesn't give me any indication of what the character is.

There's no better way to test a person than to put them in the middle of a war. That's clearly going to show what kind of a character you're telling a story about.

Getting inside your character's head and letting the reader see the world through not just their eyes but their sensibility creates an intimacy that can't be duplicated in any other medium.

You don't want to play a character you can't inhabit or commit to fully.

It seems to me that most people are interested in reading about characters who are richer than they are.

Novels attempt to render human experience; that's really all they are. They are meant to convey empathy for the character.

I love languages (I speak French and Spanish and have been studying Russian) and accents; so one definite dream role would be being able to combine those elements into a character.

I've always written stuff based on personal experience, but I've always disguised it by the use of characters.

The politics of crime is not about a party's record or a candidates proposals, but about perceived character and values.

I had wanted to be a regular character on a series for a while. 'The Brady Bunch' was an answer to a prayer.

Speaking as a writer, I'm not interested in trends, I want to write books that are honest, with characters as true to the inner world of the story as I can make them.

Fatal illness has always been viewed as a test of moral character, but in the nineteenth century there is a great reluctance to let anybody flunk the test.

It would need someone very remarkable to recover your name, Stephen, someone of rare perspicacity, with extraordinary talents and incomparable nobility of character. Me, in fact.

I don't think it necessarily makes me want to go back to my 20s, but what I love about playing any type of character is the escapism.

So you eat, you sleep, and then this wonderful child comes out, but you don't feel like you have any control over that process, over her, over her character and who she is.

The road to gooď is the roughest and steepest in the universe. It is a wonder that so many succeed, no wonder that so many fall. Character has to be established through a thousand stumbles.

In the English character, the "give and take" policy, the business principle of the trader, is principally inherent.

We want the education by which character is formed, strength of mind is increased, the intellect is expanded, and by which one can stand on one's own feet.

We may convert every house in the country into a charity asylum, we may fill the land with hospitals, but the misery of man will still continue to exist until man's character changes.

I'm perceived to be this solitary character, but nothing could be further from the truth.

Characters I've played, they used to impact my paintings, like 80 percent of the time, and especially when I was doing an action film.

When I tried to play characters that strayed from who I am it ended in disaster. People didn't expect me in comedies or musicals.

Certain characters, mostly heroes, have to be the straight silent type; that is part of the make-up.

I've always boxed a certain way. But with Rocky, the character himself had to be kind of awkward. So I had to learn to fight that way.

If I'd made it right away as an actor, I would've stopped at a certain level and stayed there, probably as a character actor.

I had to bite back a laugh. "Cary Taylor. Loving you isn't a character defect." Chapter 12, pg 213

For the last six weeks I have found myself pestered by some characters in search of an author.

The difference between fiction and journalism is that you can disguise the characters, so you won't get your legs broken, and there's no interview tapes to transcribe.

I don't have any room in my heart for that character [Kevin McCallister ]. I like the actor [Macaulay Culkin], but the character, no.

I love people like Kate Bush and Stevie Nicks and David Bowie - people that project themselves as characters and that contextualizes the music.

How one stands up to any sort of allegation in the heat of political battle reveals the strength and nature of your character. It's one of the reasons we have campaigns.

I'd like to find whoever taught the Stump that extra work builds character and push him down the stairs," Neal told Kel at lunch.

One of the things I strive for is realism. I need to be as real as possible in the dilemmas my characters face.

I know Bret Easton Ellis has said he has some amount of empathy for every character he has written about, though, so maybe I am similar to him in terms of that. I'm not sure what he thinks exactly.

I think Bret Easton Ellis has said that he doesn't completely identify with his characters. And I think he has referred to them as immoral before.

There's a lot more to see when you're playing and because of the advances in technology it makes room for all kinds of new characters.

Start as early as you can. Make tapes of your characters.

There are likable characters in prison. Sometimes the worst criminals are also some of the most charming people.

I have played some very kind and loving character. I don't know why I'm so good at playing bad. I really don't.

Everybody thinks because of my character that I'm this wild girl and I am, I'm an actor, and I have that in me - but I'm actually very calm and mellow.

I don't steer towards anything. I steer towards character and truth. If it's funny then so be it. If it's dramatic, so be it. I just steer towards characters.

Dance has always been a really important thing for me, so being able to physically express the characters through music and dance is like another layer to things.

We do long-form-style improv. Our focus was characters and telling a long arc story over about an hour and a half. It was closer to a one-act play than one-off sketches.