Jeff Nichols Quotes

You don't go around thinking about how characters in a movie, in the stories you make up, relate to people in general.

I didn't even think about good guy, bad guy when I started. I was that unfamiliar with the business.

One of the things that separates a good genre movie from a bad genre movie, I always think, ironically, is when you care about the people. The dime a dozen ones are where you don't have any awareness of the character.

I think if you're too embroiled in the need to relate too closely to the character, then you start to judge the character for the audience rather than to present it to the audience for their enjoyment and them to mull over the questions that the characters present.

One must never assume that a character is sympathetic because of either the actor playing them or the fact that they're a lead. I think that's a recipe for failure, actually, because if they become unsympathetic, you lose your audience.

I like movies about people and movies with characters; that's what I'm drawn to as a person who likes to create these characters within the story, but I like it all, really.

My books are primarily plot driven but the best plot in the world is useless if you don't populate them with characters that readers can care about.

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 try mainly to just focus on character and what my character's point of view is, with each person, and try to figure out story.

When you're building a character, or at least when I'm building a character, you start saying, 'How am I going to make people like him?'

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

Usually when I'm trying to establish character, I try and find out where they live.

There are always different roles and questions to be asked about certain characters.

As an actor, you don't really have a say or a voice in what the conversation of the show is going to be. So, as an actor, I'm just trying to make sense of why the character is making these choices, and somehow, in that way, you can sympathize or root, at least not detest, what this person is doing. That's, at least, my job in telling that story.

The real trick to these movies and making the big action sequences work - and I've forgotten this sometimes and screwed it up - the characters really have to be humanized. Because you can have the greatest special effects in the world, but if you don't care about the people in those effects, there's no impact.

Audiences need to engage with characters.

Smart writers really take their time in investing in backstories and characters. As a viewer, you have to invest in them and love them before you can chip away at what's going on more on a deeper level with secondary characters.

You don't want to make performances; you want to make people. When a project knows, 'Okay, my bad guys need to be a little sympathetic, and my good guys need to have a bit of a mean streak,' you're off to a good start.

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

When a show starts out, you're immediately trying to identify your goodies and baddies, and trying to place people in your mind where you think they belong.

All my characters have been relatable.

Great novels have great characterization no matter what. But multiple points of view let me examine characters from entirely different perspectives, allowing me to learn more about everyone in the process.

The writer of stories or of novels settles on men and imitates them; he exhausts the possibilities of his characters.

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.

My books are character-driven. They're not driven by the story.