Marie Brennan Quotes

My stories are character driven.

Any author of fiction will tell you that characters don't need to be told what to do.

When you find you don't like a character, you just type four letters and he's dead.

You just play what a writer writes, in terms of what a character chooses to do and how a character chooses to deal with their various relationships.

I try to begin with a strong grasp of my characters. Even if it's schematic, I need it clear in my head who these people are.

I, as a fan of numerous TV shows and movies, know that people mess up. The characters that we love are not always going to act in the ways that we want them to. That's what makes them interesting.

I try to create characters that I am fascinated by on some level or intrigued by or can't stand.

I have a cheat-sheet for each one of my characters about their personality, the way they look, etc. So there is no possible way that I could have writer's block.

I'm about my characters.

I always look for interesting, complex characters. You know, interesting, well-written material.

What I'm really trying to do is create unique characters.

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

I'm interested in characters and relationships.

For 'The Bestseller'... there was hardly any research, but I had to give each person a quirk and develop their stories so that it would relate to who they are.

As a writer, you understand how hard it is to build up backstory for characters, so you can have impactful moments. You have to build toward something and then pay it off.

My characters aren't chess pieces. I don't move them around some big board. I actually care about these fictitious people.

I'm interested in characters. I love them, and I love to write them.

Plot is just not my gift. I'm fascinated with complex characters, and that doesn't mix well with complex plots. And by the way, when the plot is simple, you can move one piece around and make it feel fresh. Hell or High Water's a good example: I don't tell you why the brothers are robbing the bank.

I mean, can I really create a full, three-dimensional character? I don't know anymore. I'm certainly going to try.

When writing a novel a writer should create living people; people not characters. A character is a caricature.

All fiction is about people, unless it's about rabbits pretending to be people. It's all essentially characters in action, which means characters moving through time and changes taking place, and that's what we call 'the plot'.

You decide which characters you want and then do the best you can to bring their humanity to the forefront in the context that you place them in - the crises in which you've placed them.

You can really help support a character if you understand the setting. So for that reason I generally write about Philadelphia.

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.

You've got to leave the reader with more than just a name and a costume - they need to know who the character is, what they're like, what kind of attitude they have, what sort of role they play.