Vetrimaaran Quotes

When the characters are really alive before their author, the latter does nothing but follow them in their action, in their words, in the situations which they suggest to him.

I like to let the story flesh itself out, and usually, the characters make their own decisions as things get under way. Dialogue especially seems to write itself once I'm familiar with the characters and their backgrounds.

Unlike life, you've got more or less complete control over what's going on in your stories. That's not to say you can make characters do whatever you want them to - they usually have a life of their own if you've done your job properly.

I have always argued, in a good novel, interesting things happen to interesting people.

It is a wonderful thing in the process of writing when such paper characters are first sketched, and, when one is doing good work, from a certain point in time they come alive and start contradicting the author as well.

I can move my characters through it easily, because I understand the background; I've really studied it.

Especially when I write, I want to get out of people's heads and have them speak and have them get dressed and have them go to work.

Characters are incredibly important, but I tend to build them around the plot during the outline stage. However, once I'm writing the manuscript, the characters I'm writing dictate how the plot unfolds.

I tend to write one character at a time. But I don't write the entirety of one character at a time.

Because they feel that without them telling you to do this, you wouldn't have had the characters that you have, you wouldn't have the book that you have.

For me, plot always comes out of character, so I had to be sure of my characters.

Producing is figuring out how to make each character have a distinct voice, how to make the story twist and turn - that's the biggest challenge.

It always comes down to script and characters.

I may have a story idea but everything starts moving when I am able to see my characters clearly. They then organically lead or respond to the story or the universe I want to create.

I have always believed that if a film has only two characters, but they do not make any sense, then the film's meaningless.

To combine telling an interesting story with brilliantly written characters is the most difficult thing to do.

As an author you hope your characters have sparks but truly in the end they have minds of their own!

If I'm practicing making up what the characters will do, it's never good. In fact, when I catch myself doing that, I try to get rid of that section, and try and let them start making the decisions.

Plot and character are virtually the same thing.

A novel is utterly your own creation, a very private process. I think of a novel as a noun and a screenplay as a verb. In a novel, very little needs to happen; you can explore a person's memories and thoughts and fantasies. In a screenplay, it's all action; you must push the story on.

An attempt to write nothing but characterization will soon bog down; I for one don't want to have somebody tell me about someone else.

Whether you're writing a horror show or a James Bond film, I think what bubbles beneath is interesting characterization. The colors that emerge through storytelling is what a dramatist does. There's always got to be something bubbling underneath that will erupt at some point.

The writer of stories or of novels settles on men and imitates them; he exhausts the possibilities of his characters.

My books are character-driven. They're not driven by the story.

Whichever character I'm using and wherever I am in my mind dictates what kind of story I'm going to tell.