Steven Spielberg Quotes

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.

If a movie is really working, you forget for two hours your Social Security number and where your car is parked. You are having a vicarious experience. You are identifying, in one way or another, with the people on the screen.

That's the difference between even the best video game and what's going on in books. Video games can inspire a reaction, but not the emotions.

If people don't connect to Eric Carter's struggles, I'm sure they'll find a character in this series to connect to. That's ultimately what it's about for me.

Television is about identifying with the characters.

You can escape into a character.

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.

The first thing, when I read the script, is that I need to care about what happens and feel compelled by the story and engaged by the characters. It needs to resonate with me, even if what the characters are going through is not something that I have experienced in my life. I have to feel like it has some sort of meaning to me.

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.'

Part of the success of the show is that the audience sees themselves in the characters, becomes the characters. The more they inhabit the characters, the more they see.

Sympathetic characters usually have a voice. They usually don't have any trouble being heard.

We can't help identifying with the protagonist. It's coded in our movie-going DNA.

When I was acting, I got trained in creating a character as a three-dimensional person. If you're doing it right you should be able to draw an audience into the character's world and make them feel their fears.

I don't like the idea the viewer can kind of sit there and go, 'Make me like this person.' People aren't inherently sympathetic.

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.

We all do that thing which is the best in movies - we relate.

The audience has to understand that if the film is going to have any meaning for them. If they are going to empathize with the characters, they have to visualize the process of concentration involved in making every move.

And the most important thing - apart from telling a good, believable story, and being a true character - is to be someone the audience will care about, even if you're playing a murderer or rapist.

As an actor, that's the best thing you can do, really take people along on a story and tell them something.

Songs are like movies to me, and so you put yourself in the movie. You become a character in the movie.

I believe people leave a theater bonding with characters. Story is the vessel that carries character. Comedy is a very important component of expressing character.

To connect with the characters, you need to connect with the world. If the world feels vaguely familiar, I believe the characters will feel relatable.

I think that ultimately any effective drama or tragedy tries to put you as much as it can into the protagonist's shoes.

It's hard to be scared if you don't feel for a character, because you don't care if they die or live.

We seek to craft characters who inspire empathy: characters our audience will care for and, as a result, will care about what happens to them and thus will share the journey we have charted. A story, after all, is the character's journey.