Shonda Rhimes Quotes

No I don't really write thinking about specific actors because it can get in the way a little bit.

I try to talk about things I know about. But my characters are more of a combination of people or how I imagine people would feel.

The characters are the result of two things-first, we elaborate them into fairly well-defined people through their dialogue, then they happen all over again, when the actor interprets them.

I don't really write with actors in mind; I write with characters and then hope desperately that we can get good actors to play those parts.

I'm a novelist, so I can't write about ideas unless they're attached to people.

I just love to be able to actually build a character.

And I have the support of the writers: I have a great relationship with the creative team, and they have a good hold of my character and my personality, and they come up with some great stuff, and I'm forever trying to change it up, keep it fresh.

When you write, you hear the characters speaking to you as you take dictation from what they say. And obviously, they had particular personalities when you hear them.

I usually don't find myself reacting to my characters. I just create them ... And let the audience decide whether they're empathetic or scared or compelled to cheer me on.

It's hard to know whether certain characters come to life or not, they either come to have their own life or they don't. I've written many things in which the characters just remain inert.

So much of what I do... is coming up with new characters and trying to invent voices for them, and to have people fully fleshed out in my head and to know who can say what in the scene and who these characters are... I love it.

When the characters are really alive before their author, the latter does nothing but follow them in their action, in their words, in the situations which they suggest to him.

When you have a book as material as it is, it's a lot easier to create a character because you have so many resources to draw upon when acting.

As a writer, I always think about who my prototype actors are, in my brain. It's helpful, as a writer, to think about that.

Whenever I have had to write fiction, I've always had to invent a character who roughly has my background.

In every film, whether it's a fictional character or not, you create an idea of the character and for me I always do a bad impersonation to start with.

I have tried very hard as a novelist to say, 'Novels are about individuals and especially larger than life individuals.'

When I'm writing, I'm writing for a particular actor. When a lot of writers are writing, they're writing an idea. So they're not really writing in a specific voice.

There are so many characters whizzing around inside my head, it's like Looney Tunes. But as soon as I've finished writing about them, I completely forget who they are.

I take stuff from real life and try to make a character out of it. And I try to live the world of the characters a little bit.

As far as the creative side, the more I do this, the more I know that it's all about the writing. We don't always celebrate that enough, but without the writing, you can't do much. You got on a film sometimes, and it's sort of half-written, and they expect and think that the actor's job is to bring the extra part and the good part. It's not.

If your dream is to tell stories, interesting stories, play interesting people, that's the bottom line. The people that I play have to be extraordinary.

Finding the voice of a character, no matter who it is - from Black Widow to Han Solo - is the first and most important hurdle for me to cross in any work of fiction.

It's down to the actors to show the writers the potential of the character.

I write in character a lot.