Irving Stone Quotes

There are a lot of techniques for developing a character.

When you're crafting a character, it's good to have a lot of influences.

If you know your characters well enough, you aren't trying to grasp for storylines. You're really thinking about their flaws and their passions and what they're chasing.

A novel makes it possible to understand not just events, but the people who control the events; not only their choices, but also their motives.

Action is only really compelling when it reveals character - character revealed through action, and not action for its own sake.

What I look for in a script is the plot point and whether they're strong, obviously, or not, whether the characters are rich or not, and if I can do justice to the character or not. Some movies you look at and the script is so bad that no one can do anything with the script.

It was always about the story rather than the character.

I think the most important thing when you're telling a story is to just tell the story as best as you possibly can.

I always do make a back story for myself, but I'm not sure how necessary it is. I just like to.

Plot and character are virtually the same thing.

An attempt to write nothing but characterization will soon bog down; I for one don't want to have somebody tell me about someone else.

Whether you're writing a horror show or a James Bond film, I think what bubbles beneath is interesting characterization. The colors that emerge through storytelling is what a dramatist does. There's always got to be something bubbling underneath that will erupt at some point.

I'm all about the story. If I like the character and I think the story's entertaining, I'll do it.

The most important aspect of any story, to me, is character.

I think of novels in architectural terms. You have to enter at the gate, and this gate must be constructed in such a way that the reader has immediate confidence in the strength of the building.

I believe that if the story is fleshed out and the characters more believable, the reader is more likely to take the journey with them. In addition, the plot can be more complex. My characters are very real to me, and I want each of my characters to be different.

I'm certainly a plot and character man. Themes, structure, style - they're valid components of a novel and you can't complete the book without them. But I think what propels me as a reader is plot and character.

I'd like to be in anything that tells a good story and has an interesting character.

Essentially and most simply put, plot is what the characters do to deal with the situation they are in. It is a logical sequence of events that grow from an initial incident that alters the status quo of the characters.

The most fascinating powers don't mean a thing if the guy's poorly motivated or dull, and the most generic powers won't hurt a well-motivated character. Personality and motivation are what make Magneto, Magneto and not Cosmic Boy. The powers work for him, but it's his motivation that makes him the character he is.

If you're sitting in your minivan, playing your computer animated films for your children in the back seat, is it the animation that's entertaining you as you drive and listen? No, it's the storytelling. That's why we put so much importance on story. No amount of great animation will save a bad story.

A story really isn't truly a story until it reaches its climax and conclusion.

If the main character's not in jeopardy - physical, psychological, emotional, whatever - then you don't have any tension, and you don't have a story.

The beginning of a plot is the prompting of desire.

Novels have much more space than short stories, which gives you more leeway with the number of characters you can include. Even 'furniture' characters can be described and given speaking parts to develop background or atmosphere.