Michael Lehmann Quotes

What I like about 'Paper Girls' in particular is that, because we're approaching it more from a female perspective, we're able to consider the emotional states of these characters a little bit more and think more of their interiority.

The great thing about writing is that you always put yourself in the shoes of the character. If you're doing it right, you can see into the heart of all your characters. Usually, when there's a writing problem, it's because you aren't doing that.

Part of being a fiction writer is being able to imagine how someone else is thinking and feeling. I think I've always been good at that.

I spend a lot of time with my characters.

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

I love to evoke the bones and meat and thoughts of characters.

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

To write convincingly, I think you must be able to relate, in some way, to what a character is experiencing.

What I love about my work is that I'm forced to look through my character's eyes.

To get a connection to your characters, you have to put them in a situation that you can feel yourself.

You can start imagining all kinds of things characters would feel, but you have to have a sense of whether those imaginings might be right.

From a writer's standpoint, each character and story presents its own unique challenges and delights. I'm deeply curious about all of my characters, and I love peeling away their layers to see what's underneath their skin, or secreted deep within their hearts.

If there is any secret to my success, I think it's that my characters are very real to me. I feel everything they feel, and therefore I think my readers care about them.

I feel like there are things I can relate to in every character. But I feel like when you read a script, you don't get to see the definition behind someone, you just get to read what the person goes through and find a place to come from to make it real.

My writing process is such that a story will be in my head for awhile, and I'll start making notes on my computer. I create character sheets that include a character's past, fears, goals and ambitions.

As a writer, it's a great narrative tool to have that character who is slightly detached but at the same time observant of his reality, because I think that's pretty much what being a writer is - being there, watching and internalizing.

I suppose it's possible that a writer would have feeling for his characters, but I can't see how, because writing is such a meticulous, intricate, technical business. I wish I could say that I love my characters and that frequently they take over the book and run away with the plot and so on. But they don't exist.

The hardest thing is to write about people. First and foremost, you have to encounter their humanity. That is the only way you can make them live as characters on the page.

I think it's important that a director be able to know his characters inside and out.

I usually don't find myself reacting to my characters. I just create them ... And let the audience decide whether they're empathetic or scared or compelled to cheer me on.

Often, writer's block will occur when I don't understand a character or his/her motivations. So I will make notes analysing characters.

I locate that special problem in a character and then try to understand it. That's the genesis of all my work.

I have to have a character worth caring about. I tend not to start writing books about people I don't have a lot of sympathy for because I'm just going to be with them too long.

If I'm doing my job as an actor, the audience knows everything I know about the character.

I don't really approach stories to make them different from other stuff I've seen, I just try to get into the character, into his or her head. Try to make it as funny, as scary or as wild as I can so that I really like it.