Chelsea Cain Quotes

My characters all have issues, but I don't see that as weird or abnormal because I think in real life there are very few bland, normal people.

Well, I don't feel that I've played so many bad guys, and I'm rot really drawn to villains per se. I think a lot of people relate to some of my characters' inner struggles.

I like playing characters with internal problems.

The more shaded, flawed characters that are struggling, I think there's something very relatable about that.

Well, I think in my first two novels, both the characters are pretty neurotic, which I would say that I am.

For an author, the nice characters aren't much fun. What you want are the screwed up characters. You know, the characters that are constantly wondering if what they are doing is the right thing, characters that are not only screwed up but are self-tapping screws. They're doing it for themselves.

Exposing characters and their shortcomings gives me great comfort. It's always great to write about someone more mixed up than yourself.

The more settled I've become, the more problematic my characters have become. There was a period when I wrote sensitive and gentle songs and these came at a time when life was at its most destructive. I think you write about what you need, on some level.

I like playing flawed characters, people who aren't perfect.

I'm trying to make really flawed characters that have got redeeming features so people can say, 'I don't really like that character, but I can understand a bit where they've come from.'

I enjoy played flawed men who are pushed to the limit, who make mistakes and then have to recover.

So Kratos is always angry, and he spent a considerable amount of time after 'God of War' trying to be away from people and trying to figure out how to get control of that. So it is this kind of internal struggle for him at all times.

I look for a layered character who has problems and issues - which, by the way, we all do have.

Perhaps not being very self-aware in the past masked depression. I think I was confused. I think I was immature. I think I probably was quite depressed.

Sometimes you have to confront your demons and sometimes even let them loose to genuinely find a place where you can gain some understanding.

If the novelist shares his or her problems with the characters, he or she is able to study his personal unconscious.

I think a novel has to be about where you are at a given moment in time. I think it really needs to represent some specific pain you're going through. it's not just a story.

Well, the years from 10 to 20, when your body, mind and everything is like changing every five minutes, can be pretty torturing. And most of the interesting characters, I think, are somewhat tortured or torturous. I'm 20 now, so I'm only just an adult.

It is difficult to write about any form of mental disease, especially your own, without sounding as if you were examining a bug under glass.

I like telling stories of imperfect people because most people are imperfect.

The hardest role that I've ever tried to play was Clara Johnson in 'Light in the Piazza' at Lincoln Center. It was the least fun I've ever had, but the most beautiful experience I've ever had. I could not understand her. I could not put my feet in her shoes. I came home every night, and I was depressed.

I love it when you like a character, and then she does something you don't like, and you hate her for a while - then you love her again. I'd like to see her have unlikable moments that the audience understands and sympathizes with.

Almost every month, I have a day where I get stuck in the mud of me. I used to blame hormones and PMS. After I hit 50, I blamed the lack of hormones. But men get stuck, too, so it must simply be the human condition.

I would stay in my room for days, for days at times, just trying to get it together, to know what my next phase was going to be.

What it made me realize was that a show like this makes people look inside themselves. Because this crew guy isn't sitting there wishing the character would fight back. He's hoping that he would fight back.