Ethan Canin Quotes

I always liked characters that were more grounded in reality.

The characters are whole, real people to me that I'm getting to know, and since real people are all flawed, so are my characters, I hope.

I wanted to make these people real, not like they were in a painting. Like these are people who don't know they're in a period movie. Those concerns are incredibly immediate.

I try to write about real women, real people - in other words flawed characters.

We, people, are so very, very complicated that no matter how well drawn a fictional character is, they can't get anywhere near as complex as a real person.

I like playing characters that are true to life, and there's no guarantee that any of us are going to be okay, but we intend to be, and we take the time to try to be. I don't think it's any different for a character.

At the core, I try to write characters who are real people with real insecurities, fears, hopes, and dreams, which is why hopefully readers can identify with them.

I tend to play more true-to-life characters in real situations.

You never want to just be outrageous for outrageous' sake 'cause then it doesn't work, and it's not believable. You want to be as true to whatever character you're playing.

I believe that attributing flaws to medical characters makes them not just doctors but something more. It makes them people.

I'm a hardcore reality lover. I love characters that people can relate with and yet a tinge of grey shade.

I think what I find challenging is just trying to bring a truthfulness and a realism to a character.

I don't think being flawed is a bad thing for a character... nor do I think it's a bad thing for a person in life, because that's how we all are.

Female characters in literature are full. They're messy: they've got runny noses and burp and belch. Unfortunately, in film, female characters don't often have that kind of richness.

Acting is the art of being and existing, and not being fake.

What I read and what I go to the movies for is not to find a best friend, not to find inspirations, not necessarily for a hero's journey. It's to be involved with characters that are maybe incredibly different from me, that may be incredibly bad but that feel authentic.

I think the best way to sell a made-up character is to plant his feet into the real earth.

I knew what kind of actor I was going to be, and I looked for inspiration to people like Alec Guinness, Cyril Cusack, Timothy Spall and Jim Broadbent. I looked at them and thought, 'They play human beings as they really are.'

I think heroes who are not flawed are not believable.

I am a method actor, but I'm also a film actor as well as a method actor. Characters that don't have humility, whether they are heroes or villains, are hard to relate to. All characters in every aspect of what we do should have humility. If they don't, then they're a cartoon character.

I do really like serio-comic movies that treat real difficulties in a real way.

One of the great things about 'Girls' is that each of these characters really does represent a human being. There are definitely relatable aspects to all of these folks, and certainly within my close friend group, those personalities very much exist.

It's very hard to play a man without any flaws.

If you're going to play human beings, and you're going to play them three-dimensionally, you have to show every side of them.

All women are strong, and we don't need to write stronger female roles; what we need to start writing is real women that have emotions and have real-life thoughts.