Dan Scanlon Quotes

I'm always sorry to finish a book, to let go of characters I love, people I've struggled to understand for years, people who evolve before me.

In 'The Prophet' I really fell in love with those characters, there was an emotional connection there that I don't think I've had in a while. It made me think it would be nice to stick with the characters for a little bit and see what happens.

People like the comedy more when they care about the characters.

I do feel more towards certain characters who have depth and intelligence.

I don't really like simple characters too much; it's too easy. I like a challenge, and I like characters you connect with on screen.

People seem to need a likable protagonist more than ever.

A lot of entertainment, and especially in a half-hour format, can be all jokes, all the time. And some of those jokes can be really, really funny, but what I respond to, as a viewers, is identification or caring about the characters.

Certain characters get to me and stay with me for a while.

If we get caught up in a story, it's because we've started to care about the characters, and that can only happen if we've moved beneath the surface.

I love all my characters. I love their weaknesses and flaws. I feel like they're all my best friends and I adore being with them.

There's no rule that we have to like the characters movies are about.

I love reading for a character I have no business reading for.

If you don't care for the villain, if you don't love him and hate him at the same time, then he's just boring.

I am a firm believer that a good plot makes for a fun enough read, but it's not what binds us. If we don't care about the characters, we won't care - not in a lasting way - about what's happening to them.

It's hard to be scared if you don't feel for a character, because you don't care if they die or live.

Well, it's difficult to fall in love with a character when you just read the pilot. You don't really know who the character is.

If you have great characters, then your reader becomes emotionally invested in those people.

If the reader doesn't care or relate to the characters, all that visual spectacle is pretty but feels empty.

What makes an audience watch something and care about the characters is the emotional life of the characters.

Audiences are just like us as writers - we grow attached to characters. In certain ways you don't want them to change.

You have to be involved and relate to the characters in order to make a film that is true emotionally.

I love characters songs and I love to fit into a story. I love singing through a character's journey.

One of the things that separates a good genre movie from a bad genre movie, I always think, ironically, is when you care about the people. The dime a dozen ones are where you don't have any awareness of the character.

You spend so much time writing a character the way I did with Buddy Baker and then Green Arrow that you start to care about them. And you almost think of them as people, you know?

As a writer, you have to realize that people want to like the characters, so you have to be careful to keep them involved.