Donald E. Westlake Quotes

Portraying emotionally ill characters gives me the chance to really act.

You've got to understand what makes the character human.

To create a fully formed character full of life, struggle, and humanity is tough.

When a character has so many secrets and so much inner life, it's a joy to play those characters because you can use your craft.

The character, as written on the page, is just a blueprint for a human being.

It's always an interesting challenge to see if you can create a character that's got emotion.

I'm pulling out different aspects of my personality in writing each character and, if I'm doing my job well, I'm being true to the situation and true to the character.

Now for the hitch in Jane's character,' he said at last, speaking more calmly than from his look I had expected him to speak. 'The reel of silk has run smoothly enough so far; but I always knew there would come a knot and a puzzle: here it is. Now for vexation, and exasperation, and endless trouble!

The more you spend time with a character, the more you see different nuances of that character.

I mean every character you totally, you know, the full fiber of the personality is kept in the film, and all of those little moments, all those funny little tidbits are all in there.

I've done a number of films. I've been around this. I think the biggest challenge is just getting the script right, the way that you want the script to be. It's really about capturing the complexity of emotions and creating the kind of characters that people will want to watch every week.

Characters make their own plot. The dimensions of the characters determine the action of the novel.

Usually there is a paradox in what a character wants. A conflict is built deeply within them. And then you put them in motion, throw everything at them until they reveal themselves further.

For me the most interesting characters are outwardly static, but inwardly charged by an overriding passion.

You build a character, a shell, and if you build it right, something comes to live inside it.

That's your job as the actor, to understand the human part of the character, to make it real.

It depends on the story and the filmmaker. And it depends on the character, and the heart and soul of the person that I see on the page, and if it resonates with something that I think I can summon in myself.

I enjoy bringing humanity to complex characters.

When you start and you're taking the character seriously, it's going to lead down a variety of paths.

Ultimately, all characters have some negative and positive energies. That's just how I see it. I didn't go out looking for negative characters; I went out looking for people who have a struggle and a fight to tackle. That's what interests me.

Whatever character you're playing you have to complete the entire interior infrastructure, whatever it is - but what gets divulged or what people completely understand depends on the script and what you decide to show. But you have to know it.

I push myself as hard as I can. Sometimes that can be painful and stressful but inthe end it's worth the price... I like to play characters that I can draw from in my own life. I've invested so much of my life into my work that I almost don't have any choice.

I love characters that are going through turmoil. To be honest, I love characters with conflict. I love characters who are really going through an emotional journey; whether it's a super-dark-crazy journey or a really relatable guy.

As a writer, I haven't delved into dramatic writing. As an actor, I could always, even more so than comedy, do drama. When you do your comedy and your drama, your acting style doesn't change. If it's a comedy, the situations and the characters might be a little funnier, but you're just trying to be honest.

I definitely think the formula to making my character seem sweet is to let him act like a jerk, give him a redeeming moment, and have a sweet song playing over the background when it happens.