Anne Tyler Quotes

I try to distinguish my characters from each other.

I mean, can I really create a full, three-dimensional character? I don't know anymore. I'm certainly going to try.

The thing with videogame characters is that they tend to be really undercooked, and people don't take the time to really flesh them out. They don't treat them with the respect that a writer writing characters in any other medium would treat their character.

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

To create characters, one must build background. And one of the tools we use is improvisation.

For every book that I write... I develop a history for each person and make sure they are well rounded and flawed. You have to know everything about them from their shoe size, to where they went to school, to what their first pet was, to what they like to eat, to what they want out of life.

Don't start writing your novel until you know your characters very, very well. What they'd do if they saw somebody shoplifting. What they were like at school. What shoes they wear. Spend days - weeks, months - being them until they thicken up and start to breathe.

What I look for in any character, good or bad, is whether I can hear him speak. If I can imagine him that clearly, then I can write about him.

My characters are not plastic.

Developing characters is a strange thing. In the beginning they are abstract and I wonder how to move on from there.

You establish a technique on how to develop characters. Everyone does it their own way, and that's what makes it fun.

What I'm really trying to do is create unique characters.

The question of likability is a bit of a puzzler for me. You know, I don't write people with likability in mind. It's more whether or not I find them compelling.

Characters are not created on paper or laptop alone.

Detailing and backstories are so important; only they draw you into the life of a character.

I'm interested in characters. I love them, and I love to write them.

I don't ever really know where I get my characters from.

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

Writers often say that characters begin to write themselves, and I never used to believe that. I always thought that was complete hogwash.

When writing a novel a writer should create living people; people not characters. A character is a caricature.

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

What makes characters real are details, and if you're crafting a person from scratch, you're probably not going to pay as much attention to a question like, 'Does this person bite their nails?'

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.

I always believed in my characters. I lived them.

Everybody has parents. As a dramatist, whenever you write a character, you must write their parents as well, even if the parents aren't there.