Elmore Leonard Quotes

The idea behind 'Gloria' was to take a secondary character - the aunt, the mother - and stay with her as she becomes our protagonist.

There are so many female roles - particularly for young women - that are just somebody's girlfriend or somebody's daughter, or that are accessories to the main story rather than being three-dimensional characters.

In a way, the characters often do take over.

Any author of fiction will tell you that characters don't need to be told what to do.

One of the most interesting female characters I've written about was Meg Riddoch, the lead character in 'The Thompson Gunner'.

I won't take parts where the female character has no substance.

I'm obviously interested in playing characters who have autonomy, who drive the story.

I am very interested in female characters and bringing a new perspective to mediums where not necessarily that's been valued at all.

I take little bits and pieces of ideas that I may or may not believe in but I give them to this character and he runs with them. I have fun with however he handles the situation.

Unlike life, you've got more or less complete control over what's going on in your stories. That's not to say you can make characters do whatever you want them to - they usually have a life of their own if you've done your job properly.

It's so rare that you actually get to find a really well-written female lead.

I'm drawn to female characters; not all of them are strong characters.

Because characters are your creations, you are the one who ultimately gets to decide their fate.

There's no need for a female character that does things like a male character; that's not what makes interesting female characters in my view.

The moment comes when a character does or says something you hadn't thought about. At that moment he's alive and you leave it to him.

I'm drawn particularly to stories that evolve out of the character of the protagonist.

It interests me to imagine characters shifting from one situation and one location to another for whatever the circumstances may be.

After a while, the character sort of took over.

It is scary for an actor when you get hired as a lead. No matter what the plot is, it is your job to do something interesting enough to make them want to get inside the lead character's head.

When there is a strong woman character in a story - that always grabs me.

James Patterson has a way with female characters. He understands women in a way that a lot of male writers don't.

I've sort of dealt with the characters' lives more; particularly the women characters.

With 'Holes' I was troubled that there weren't very many female characters. I tried to put them in where I could. But the setting didn't lend itself to girls.

It can certainly happen that characters in more sophisticated stories can 'take over' as they develop and change the author's original ideas. Well, it certainly happens to me at times.

Until they come up with an independent woman who's on an adventure of her own, I don't think I'm interested.