120 quotes found
“By the end, you should be inside your character, actually operating from within somebody else, and knowing him pretty well, as that person knows himself or herself. You're sort of a predator, an in...”
“The worst part of writing is meeting all these great new characters and having no one to talk about (the adventures you share with) them.”
“I miss the days when I was alone with my characters and no one else knew them except me.”
“Just me, my music, and the voices in my head.”
“Fictional characters are made of words, not flesh; they do not have free will, they do not exercise volition. They are easily born, and as easily killed off.”
“I will take what I can from Edward. And then I will let them fade into history, all the characters in this drama. Emma Matthews and the men who loved her, who became obsessed with her. They're not ...”
“We never end up with the book we began writing. Characters twist it and turn it until they get the life that is perfect for them. A good writer won't waste their time arguing with the characters th...”
“The characters who go to make up my stories and novels are not portraits. Characters I invent along with the story that carries them. Attached to them are what I've borrowed, perhaps unconsciously,...”
“Youre the girl that I have been wanting. Youre the girl that I could see myself with forever. And most importantly, youre the girl that Ive fallen in love with.”
“Listen to what you have written. A dud rhythm in a passage of dialogue may show that you don't yet understand the characters well enough to write in their vo”
“Some writers, notably Anton Chekov, argue that all characters must be admirable, because once we've looked at anyone deeply enough and understood their motivation we must identify with them rather ...”
“The novels we read allow us to encounter possible persons, versions of ourselves hat we would never see, never permit ourselves to see, never permit ourselves to become, in places we can never go a...”
“A Dickens character to me is a theatrical projection of a character. Not that it isn't real. It's real, but in that removed sense. But Sherlock Holmes is simply there. I would be astonished if I we...”
“...you mean you don't fit characters into a plot? excatly...”
“One of the key secrets of great writing is knowing where to start and when to stop.”
“No writing is effortless. Im not saying you cant have a good day where the words just kind of flow, but even those words have to be edited. Probably more than once. And Im not saying a character ha...”
“T[he rules of writing] require that the personages in a tale shall be alive, except in the case of corpses, and that always the reader shall be able to tell the corpses from the others.”
“My problem as a writer is that—whenever I meet someone for the first time—I immediately invent for them a personality and background that are invariably more interesting than the ones they possess....”
“When people’s parallel truth collides with their real truth, they may have a hard time in subduing all the fanciful items and characters of their invented world. (“The day the mirror was talking ba...”
“Galloway pursed his lips and then gave a sly smirk. “I’ll admit I didn’t foresee this. You have become a prominent foe. I apologize for ridiculing you.”“I accept your apology.”“Good. Now it’s time ...”
