Alan Dean Foster Quotes

I am a firm believer that a good plot makes for a fun enough read, but it's not what binds us. If we don't care about the characters, we won't care - not in a lasting way - about what's happening to them.

If we get caught up in a story, it's because we've started to care about the characters, and that can only happen if we've moved beneath the surface.

I think I would struggle with any job if it was purely about effects. Even as a viewer, those aren't the kind of things that interest me. I think ultimately you have to be connected to characters and their relationships. Otherwise, it's not drama to me.

I think you have to love the characters that you write. I don't know how you could possibly write a TV show where you didn't love the characters.

I'm always sorry to finish a book, to let go of characters I love, people I've struggled to understand for years, people who evolve before me.

I think it is important that you care about the characters, and you are not just waiting for the next action sequence but have a vested interested in what happens to them.

If I don't fall in love with my characters, I cannot shoot.

If you have great characters, then your reader becomes emotionally invested in those people.

My characters are always utterly sympathetic to me, if that makes any sense.

Something that 'Game of Thrones' always does successfully is that action sequences are never just action sequences. There's always a point of view, and you're always identifying with one person or one group of people.

As a writer, you have to realize that people want to like the characters, so you have to be careful to keep them involved.

I don't think people are ever going to a place where they're like, 'I'm over stories about character and love.'

Every time I talk about 'The Shield' I kind of talk about it from three perspectives, as if I'm three people, because I'm a fan of the show. I'm in love with all the other characters and their journeys and their work. But then, as an actor, I love getting this kind of rich material and having to do it. As my character, did my journey finish?

In 'The Prophet' I really fell in love with those characters, there was an emotional connection there that I don't think I've had in a while. It made me think it would be nice to stick with the characters for a little bit and see what happens.

Remember, if you don't feel passionate about the characters and subject of your story, your readers won't either.

If you don't have people that the reader cares about and stories that are gripping, you've got nothing.

I really fall in love with my characters, even the bad ones. I love getting together with them. They tell me what to do; they take me on a wild and wonderful trip.

I always find that really interesting, you know, when I get to see characters that I love in TV and film and theater around their family.

I've always felt, even with sketches, that if you don't care about these people, then it doesn't matter.

Creating authentic emotional experiences, whether it's 'Star Wars' or 'Spotlight,' are driven by characters and stories that are engaging.

You can film the most exciting car chase and the most exciting stunts, but if you don't care about the person inside the car, and you don't care about their predicament, you're not really going to care about the action, either.

You have to have somebody to root for. I truly believe that's how you ground a movie. You ground them in the characters.

I love my characters like family and cannot wait to share more of their story with readers.

I get very invested in characters; it's the only way I find that I can write a book and really make it work.

What makes an audience watch something and care about the characters is the emotional life of the characters.