Thomas Perry 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.

Most of the time, when I'm writing, I'm writing for myself. I'm thinking, 'What will my character say at this time? What will come out of her mouth?' I create individuals so real to me, I sometimes start talking to them. Then I let them loose on the page.

Once I started to value and respect my characters, I could really hear them. I just let them start talking.

The great thing about writing is that you always put yourself in the shoes of the character. If you're doing it right, you can see into the heart of all your characters. Usually, when there's a writing problem, it's because you aren't doing that.

The question of likability is a bit of a puzzler for me. You know, I don't write people with likability in mind. It's more whether or not I find them compelling.

I'm interested in characters. I love them, and I love to write them.

I used to say I wasn't interested in writing about characters.

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

For me, the dialogue is the easiest part of writing. It just always seems so obvious what a character will say. Maybe it's because I talk too much!

It's usually easier for me to begin writing in a character's voice if that person is different from me in some significant way.

I always believed in my characters. I lived them.

It is a wonderful thing in the process of writing when such paper characters are first sketched, and, when one is doing good work, from a certain point in time they come alive and start contradicting the author as well.

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.

In television writing, you want to hear what the characters say as opposed to giving them something to say. It's the same with the cartoons.

Especially when I write, I want to get out of people's heads and have them speak and have them get dressed and have them go to work.

I just let the character speak to me and things appear.

You can write and write, but if you don't have someone who can nail that character, it's never going to live.

I suppose it's easier for most writers to create and vivify characters of their own gender.

You can't really write until the characters kind of show up one day and tell you what they're going to say. You start to hear the rhythm of the way the people talk, and then it becomes easier.

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.

I think the moment you're writing about somebody who's not exactly you, then the challenge is all equal.

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.

Characters are an extension of your imagination.

Characters are not created on paper or laptop alone.

I like to write characters that feel like people that I would know.