Keenen Ivory Wayans Quotes

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

The characters are always the focal point of a book for me, whether I'm writing or reading. I may enjoy a book that has an intriguing mystery or a good plot, but to become one of my real favorites, it has to have great characters.

I'm about my characters.

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

I know the relationships, and I already know my characters and how I'm going to reveal my characters to my readers - how I'm going to feed them information about that character. That stuff doesn't have to be in my outline.

Stories are important, but I'm really into characters, and if you can give birth to a good one, that's true success.

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

I'm more interested in character than events. I've observed that about myself as a writer. I find events, even the most dramatic sort, not to be such fertile ground.

When you're writing a book, with people in it as opposed to animals, it is no good having people who are ordinary, because they are not going to interest your readers at all. Every writer in the world has to use the characters that have something interesting about them, and this is even more true in children's books.

I seem to have to make my characters family before I can access their hearts in any way that matters.

'Longmire' is more of a show about the characters, and you couldn't pay a bigger compliment than to want to know more about my character, or the characters on the show.

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 can tell you that as a writer and as a reader, I regard character as king. Or queen. No matter how riveting the action or interesting the plot twists, if I don't feel like I'm meeting someone who feels real, I'm not going to be compelled to read further.

I'm still really fascinated with characters and people and telling their stories.

My stories are character driven.

I like to take a character and develop it.

Developing characters is a strange thing. In the beginning they are abstract and I wonder how to move on from there.

I am looking for a character that connects to me on some level. It has to be about something, it has to have depth to it and it has to be about something. The story of the character and their relationship with the people and places around them appeal to me and are what I look for.

The question of likability is a bit of a puzzler for me. You know, I don't write people with likability in mind. It's more whether or not I find them compelling.

When you create a character, you create it for yourself - you do whatever you want. It's your job to explore it in as many different avenues as you can in order to make it a fully wounded character.

I don't write a whole lot about one person that exists in reality; it's usually characteristics of different people that I combine into a character. I tend to think through and try and make characters behave in a natural way. I follow the character and think about what they would do, what decisions they would make.

It always comes down to script and characters.

I think my best quality as a writer is the ability to craft complicated, nuanced, interesting characters.

When it comes to a character, I make sure that it adds to the plot.

In 'Poster Boys,' every character is well defined.