Character Quotes - Page 358

The editor, Stephen Segal, actually called me with the idea of creating an accordion book [ "The Thorn & The Blossom"], and asked if I could write a story for it. I was so intrigued! I immediately knew that it had to be a love story told from the points of view of the two main characters. Right away, I started working on a proposal. And once I had my main characters, Brendan and Evelyn, it was as though they started telling me their stories.

Humanity had to inflict terrible injuries on itself before the self, the identical, purpose-directed, masculine character of human beings was created, and something of this process is repeated in every childhood.

Basically, the way you get into any role is just doing research on the type of character you're playing.

Whenever I do a movie I always like to base my character off of a couple different characters.

I like to say that I was raised by sitcoms, and that my personality is comprised of different characters. Darlene from Roseanne, Denise from The Cosby Show, Uncle Jesse from Full House, a little Jessie from Saved By The Bell - but not the episode where she was addicted to sleeping pills.

Anne Barton is a delightful new voice in historical romance! Once She Was Tempted is a charming read, with characters who are easy to love--a wounded earl and a determined heroine whose heart won't be denied.

I devote most of my day to writing, and try to turn out at least four pages a day. As for what triggers the creative process, it's a mystery to me! Characters often just walk on the page and I wait to see what they do and say while I'm writing them.

Penalties put too much strain on one player. It could ruin his career if he's not a strong character.

Once you have your character sitting right there in your head, all you really need to do is wind them up, put them down, and simply write down what they do, say, or think.

The author can always delve into his own personality and find aspects of himself with which he can dress his characters.

The characters are the plot. What they do and say and the things that happen to them are, in a sense, what the plot is. You can't take character and plot apart from each other, really.

Plot exposition that can be gently wound out by the authorial voice and internal monologue of a character in the length of a page has to be delivered in a matter of seconds on the stage.

For an author, the nice characters aren't much fun. What you want are the screwed up characters. You know, the characters that are constantly wondering if what they are doing is the right thing, characters that are not only screwed up but are self-tapping screws. They're doing it for themselves.

My character - and for that matter my worst habits - could only be described by someone else. You can't open a box with the crowbar inside it.

I don't think I could play a character that I couldn't relate to somehow. I'm not unfamiliar with frustration, anger, shame, helplessness and a load of other emotions that make up our psycho-soup. I try to focus on that frustration, that sense of unfairness, and multiply it.

I let my characters do the talking, simple as that.

I try to create characters that I am fascinated by on some level or intrigued by or can't stand.

Ever since I was really little, I've had characters that were in my mind.

Everyone makes mistakes. How a person deals with their mistakes is a mark of their character.

It allows you to say things that sound very dramatic and get away with it. If you had characters in modern fiction say the same things as they're driving down the street in an Oldsmobile they'd sound ludicrous!

With fiction, you can talk about plot, character and narrative, whereas a poem brings home the fact that everything that happens in a work of literature happens in terms of language. And this is daunting stuff to deal with.

If everyone's happy, then I'm the character where when I enter that means there's trouble. In a movie, when I enter, it's not a good thing. But I know where I'm at. But, you know, you don't have to call me by my character's name for months on end. Football taught me that, because you can go from being best friends to having to play that person on another team, you have to be able to turn that on and off. You need to find that middle ground.

I kind of put myself out there a lot just because I trust the people I'm working with. You have to see what works and what doesn't. Sometimes it's not my job to find that out, it's just my job to do what the character calls for. And if you change the character I'll do that too.

The reader wants to see something happen between pages one and four hundred, and nothing happens if the characters don't change.

Testing of self is a regular part of our own lives, so it seems natural to make it a part of the lives of my characters, as well, albeit on a much different level.