Amitava Kumar Quotes

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.

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.

Yet as a director, I don't feel you have to identify with your characters as a requirement to make a movie.

The funny thing is that I feel close to all my characters. Deep, deep inside them all.

As authors, most - most authors, our art is portraying the human condition. Trying to show you what it's like to be somebody else, trying to make you feel for somebody else. That means you have to have a high degree of empathy.

I want to have compassion for my characters - I feel like I am the characters when I'm writing them.

There's some of me in all my characters.

As you become acquainted with a character you are creating, you add parts of yourself that are pertinent to that character.

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 like to write first-person because I like to become the character I'm writing.

I always believed in my characters. I lived them.

The more I love the character, the harder it is to get it wrong. I have to get to a point that I can speak for them.

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 care about all the characters I play, and I get quite defensive about them.

There are bits of me in all my characters.

There is always going to be a little bit of me in each character.

I always find stuff in my characters to relate to.

If you can't laugh at your own characters, or shed a tear for them, or even get angry at one of them, no one else will either.

Part of me becomes the characters I'm writing about. I think readers feel like they are there, the way I am, as a result.

I think the idea is to try and understand everything about the characters and where the character is coming from, from their point of view, why they say what they do. And not, 'Oh, but I would never say that. Why does the character say that?' But then making it as personal as possible.

I like to think I put some of myself in every character.

When I'm writing from a character's viewpoint, in essence I become that character; I share their thoughts, I see the world through their eyes and try to feel everything they feel.

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

I believe that if writers want their readers to care about a character, they have to care themselves. I have to root for a detective who screws up as much as Thorne does, who shares my birthday, my North London stomping ground, and my love of country music, both alt and cheesy.

I don't really distinguish between sympathy and honesty when I'm writing. The two go together - I'm interested in inhabiting my characters, seeing the world through their eyes.