David Chase Quotes

A friend of mine who is in the publishing business knew I was writing a book, and he said, 'Have you said anything yet about the good guy? Because I know you spend so much time with the bad guys.' Because they're fun. So then you have to make the good guy fun, in order to compete. That's the challenge.

In most films - especially in regards to the protagonist - really from the get-go they set up some scenario that endears that character to the audience. Or imbues him with some nobility or heroism or something.

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

But at the same time, the commonplace statement about them is true: every character is the hero of his own story. Each has a justification for his actions that is convincing to him. It's fun to give these people voices.

I don't really think of Odo as a heroic lead, but that's nice if you do.

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.'

The characters are always the focal point of a book for me, whether I'm writing or reading. I may enjoy a book that has an intriguing mystery or a good plot, but to become one of my real favorites, it has to have great characters.

Look, we're in the time of the anti-hero.

It works better if your lead character is complex and interesting and not perfect.

Characters are the key to a good book. It took me several novels to comprehend that.

It always takes awhile to find out who the characters are.

I'm always writing about character first. Plot, such as it is, comes from the characters.

The fundamentals for me are character and conflict. I put character first because readers will be indifferent to conflict if they are indifferent to the character who is experiencing it.

In terms of the parallels, I've never related less to a character than Riggan.

Nobody wants to play a one-dimensional character.

I think all interesting characters have some kind of a complex.

I could watch 'There Will Be Blood' all day long, and Daniel Plainview is a terrible person - but he's still compelling to watch. That's what makes me want to engage and see what happens next.

I cannot write any sort of story unless there is at least one character in it for whom I have physical desire.

Character is plot, plot is character.

Really a bad guy is more interesting, dramatically, than the good guy.

I would say plotting is the most difficult thing for me. Characterization is only hard because sometimes I feel I get so interested in it that I want to talk too much about the characters and that slows the story down. So I say, "Hey, people want to find out what's going to happen next, they don't want to listen to you spout off about this or that person." But I think even the bad guy deserves to tell his side of the story.

It's dialogue that gives your cast their voices, and is crucial in defining their characters.

Every character should want something, even if it is only a glass of water.

Definitely the script because you want to be part of an interesting story, you want your character to be a challenge, then comes the director. But essentially it's the script first and whether it's a character that you think you can do.

When I used to teach creative writing, I would tell the students to make their characters want something right away - even if it's only a glass of water. Characters paralyzed by the meaninglessness of modern life still have to drink water from time to time.