Elizabeth Marvel Quotes

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

In 'Me Before You,' the two characters popped into my head fully formed, which is really strange and unusual. Other books, I sit on them for two or three months. I have a whole routine: I buy a nice book; I hand-write all their characteristics. I put them through little tests just to see how they would react to things.

The analysis of character is the highest human entertainment.

I locate that special problem in a character and then try to understand it. That's the genesis of all my work.

I try to build a full personality for each of our cartoon characters - to make them personalities.

I like to take a character and develop it.

You have to start from a place of trying to create a character.

There is no creative process to come up with a character of Dean Ambrose.

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

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

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.

When I'm creating characters, I definitely think of theme songs. Writing for me is very visual, so I sometimes think of it in terms of a movie with a soundtrack, and try to transfer that to words.

Plot and character are virtually the same thing.

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

I think it's important that a director be able to know his characters inside and out.

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.

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

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.

It's really a misconception to identify the writer with the main character, given that the author creates all the characters in the book. In certain ways, I'm every character.

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.'

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

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.

When I'm writing a woman character, I don't think, 'What would a woman do?' I just think, 'What would this character do in this situation?'

I never write with an actor in mind - never.