Jhumpa Lahiri Quotes

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.

When I'm writing a book, sentence by sentence, I'm not thinking theoretically. I'm just trying to work out the story from inside the characters I've got.

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

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 put a lot of myself into my characters when I write.

Characters are not created on paper or laptop alone.

To combine telling an interesting story with brilliantly written characters is the most difficult thing to do.

I think I've written 40 books, and none of them have been heavy on action. I'm an introspective person.

Each book is a separate entity for me. When I'm writing it, I enter its world and inhabit its vocabulary. I forget, as it were, that I ever wrote anything else.

I find it an easy way into writing pieces is to think what the character's voice is like, and start from there.

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

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.

I always say I write my own novels and the characters don't take control of me, but in fact, I look at the characters in the early stages and I think, 'What is he or she like,' and they slowly come together and they become the person they are.

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

I think the idea of creating a character from scratch, one that has not been done in a novel or an existing story, is immensely exciting, terrifying and ultimately rewarding.

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.

People are always thinking that I'm the main character in my books, but each one has been different, and sometimes they've been men.

You have to have empathy, knowledge and compassion for your characters if you're a writer.

When I create characters, I create a world to inhabit and they begin to feel very real for me. I don't belong in a psych ward, I don't think, but they become very real, like my own family, and then I have to say goodbye, close the door, and work on other things.

What I look for in any character, good or bad, is whether I can hear him speak. If I can imagine him that clearly, then I can write about him.

One of the things about writing fiction is that you create people that you feel, more or less, as though you know.

The characters in my stories all have quite loud lives in my head. It's a relief to get them on the page. Often they come from people I've noticed or overheard - but that is only a part of them. It's only by writing that I discover who these people really are.

I think all characters are facets of the writer. In a way, they have to be if you're going to write them convincingly.

I tend to write one character at a time. But I don't write the entirety of one character at a time.

I think a conceptual idea comes to me first - something I've been mulling over a lot right before I feel like writing a book - and then the characters start to develop around it.