Ben Kingsley Quotes

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.

My first job is to write the characters as full and authentic people as well as I can.

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.

I love making characters real and believable, through my own experience and choices.

I always try to write about believable people.

To me, characters are at the heart of great literature.

I try to ground most of my characters in reality somehow. That's kind of what I bring to the table.

All characters come from people I know, but after the initial inspiration, I tend to modify the characters so they fit with the story.

You need the audience to become invested in the characters and in order to become invested, they need to identify with the characters... and that's why the characters need to be real.

I love to evoke the bones and meat and thoughts of characters.

It's very hard to connect with a character when you haven't gotten a sense of who they are.

Characters are not created on paper or laptop alone.

As writers, we are sketching people all the time when we write fiction.

I always try to make my characters people, and yet I always want to entertain.

I love... What's gratifying to me is when you make/create a character and a human being, a person who lives entirely and who has their own existence, just merely from the words on a page.

And I have the support of the writers: I have a great relationship with the creative team, and they have a good hold of my character and my personality, and they come up with some great stuff, and I'm forever trying to change it up, keep it fresh.

The great thing about writing is that you always put yourself in the shoes of the character. If you're doing it right, you can see into the heart of all your characters. Usually, when there's a writing problem, it's because you aren't doing that.

I like to make definite choices and give my characters as many unique edges as possible.

I always say I write my own novels and the characters don't take control of me, but in fact, I look at the characters in the early stages and I think, 'What is he or she like,' and they slowly come together and they become the person they are.

The way of creating believable characters is not by conforming to a set of PC rules.

I treat all my characters as if they were real, and I am scrupulous about the details of their lives.

There's a bizarre insistence on how a story should be. 'The protagonist must be sympathetic!' they say. Whatever that means. I never engage in that discussion. I never use that word, 'sympathetic.' I just know 'interesting.'

Once you start writing a character visually, you're in trouble.

Never argue with your characters; they know themselves better than you do.

As a writer, I always think about who my prototype actors are, in my brain. It's helpful, as a writer, to think about that.