Peter Ackroyd Quotes

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.

To me, my characters are more real than most people I meet.

As a writer of fiction, I spend my days inventing real lives for make-believe people; what I create can only seem real.

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.

What I'm really trying to do is create unique characters.

I love creating new characters that are whatever they are.

When I write a book, characters come to life for me somewhere at the back of my head. I strive to make them flesh and blood in an abstract way, in words.

I've still got my characters in my head, and I can still hear them. When I go to the grocery store, I hear them.

We have a writing process that's very much you try to create the character in a complicated way and then you let the story lead you to discovering who the character is in a natural way.

Characters are not created on paper or laptop alone.

I don't ever really know where I get my characters from.

The interesting thing about fiction from a writer's standpoint is that the characters come to life within you. And yet who are they and where are they? They seem to have as much or more vitality and complexity as the people around you.

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

When I'm creating characters, I definitely think of theme songs. Writing for me is very visual, so I sometimes think of it in terms of a movie with a soundtrack, and try to transfer that to words.

Outside books, we avoid colorful characters.

I am not an analytical writer. Once I flesh out my characters and decide on the elements of my plot, the story unfolds in my head almost as though it was a movie reel.

I always believed in my characters. I lived them.

Whichever character I'm using and wherever I am in my mind dictates what kind of story I'm going to tell.

When I wrote for TV, I was always thinking in terms of character and story. After fifteen years, it became hard-wired in me.

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.

I'll often dream about characters before I start writing their stories.

I never have particular actors planned when I'm in the process of writing.

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.

You start as an audience member and create a world you're interested in, and then you move into the telling of those stories, bringing what has interested you as an audience member.