Naomi Alderman Quotes

I don't want to draw from my own experiences in life. I first like to become the character and then think from her point of view.

In all my characters, I try to find an iota of myself, and in Castle, I found a lot. He gets away with a lot, so that's fun.

As a writer, it is always fun to imagine yourself in someone else's shoes.

In the ongoing celebration that is literature, we are asked to imagine ourselves as other selves, for better or worse.

It doubles your perception, to write from the point of view of someone you're not.

I wrote my first play at the age of 10, 55 years ago, and I've always found it a fantastic relief to imagine I know what things would be like from the point of view of other individuals and to send out signals from where I actually am not. Playwrights never need to write from the place where they are.

And that's what I really love, is finding a script and fantasizing and going to a different world and kind of portraying a character that is interesting. Because other lives interest us, that's why we read magazines like 'People' and try and fascinate and drool over what other people are doing.

But I always need to identify with a character to write about him or her - and by 'identify,' I mean see the world through that person's eyes and have a strong sense of the inner logic of their acts and decisions, wacky or wrongheaded though they might be. In that sense, I think there's some of me in all of them.

What's nice about acting is that you're not just left with yourself all the time, but you get to see the world through so many different people's eyes.

I don't believe people are interested in dates and facts. I don't think it is interesting to say what it is to be this person or that, but I do believe it is entertaining and perhaps even of value to express how it is to be that person.

Playing characters is fun because you get the chance to put yourself in someone else's shoes.

When I write, it's like choosing which shoes I'm going to put on. More often than not, my lyrics are personal - but I sometimes have to put myself in other people's shoes.

You need to be able to climb into a narrative and zip it up under your chin. You need to be able to see through the eyes of the hero, smell what he's smelling, hear what he's hearing.

Literature sucks you into another psyche. So the creation of empathy necessarily influences how you'll behave to other people.

To me, this is the singular privilege of reading literature: we are allowed to step into another's life.

Once you allow yourself to identify with the people in a story, then you might begin to see yourself in that story even if on the surface it's far removed from your situation. This is what I try to tell my students: this is one great thing that literature can do - it can make us identify with situations and people far away.

The story is a machine for empathy. In contrast to logic or reason, a story is about emotion that gets staged over a sequence of dramatic moments, so you empathize with the characters without really thinking about it too much. It is a really powerful tool for imagining yourself in other people's situations.

When you play a character, you get to see the world through their eyes. Whether it's a fictional world or a real world, you do get to see somebody else's point of view, whether he's a good guy or a bad guy.

In terms of the characters I think are really fun to play, a lot of times it's someone in my head saying 'I know that woman.'

I've loved the escapism of being another person, slipping into another character for a little while.

One of the amazing things about writing fiction is that you do get to be other people.

Acting isn't necessarily pretending. It's storytelling. It's giving someone your perspective on something.

One of the reasons I write is to be in other people's skin.

If you read literature, you put yourself in somebody else's shoes. You learn from great figures in literature.

I love theater. I love the idea that you can transform, become somebody else, and look at life with a completely new perspective. I love the idea that people will sit in one room for a couple of hours and listen.