Jonathan Tropper Quotes

When you start writing the magic comes when the characters seem to take on a life of their own and write the words for themselves.

When I'm writing, I try to have the mask of my character on as I'm walking through the world. When I'm not at my desk, the rest of the time, I try to stay in that character and see the world the way that character would It's almost like method acting in a way — keeping the character close the way the actor keeps a script close and always tries to be in character.

My characters, I find them as I'm writing. It's quite incredible how fully realized they are in my mind, how many details I know about each of them.

I very much write from characters. Those people start speaking, and then I have them in the house with me and I live with them. Then at some point, it's time to get them out of the house. You can only live with someone like Dr. Georgeous Teitelbaum from THE SISTERS ROSENSWEIG for so long, and then it's time for her to go. But it is very like having the company of these people and trying to craft them in some way into a story.

Once you have your character sitting right there in your head, all you really need to do is wind them up, put them down, and simply write down what they do, say, or think.

I find the characters in my head and the more I write about them, the better I get to know them.

I wouldn't like to be a character in one of my books!

I never see a novel as a film while I'm writing it. Mostly because novels and films are so different, and I'm such an internal novelist.

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.

My characters are fictional. I get ideas from real people, sometimes, but my characters always exist only in my head.

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

I've tried very hard and I've never found any resemblance between the people I know and the people in my novels.

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.

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

I don't really base any of my characters on specific people that I know, although my characters are informed by the kind of people who live in my community.

I'm not angry; I write about angry characters. When I'm doing that, I'm happy. Just like when I'm writing about Mickey Sabbath being lustful, I'm not feeling lustful; I'm happy.

This may sound strange, but although I feel like I know everything about my characters, the brand of shampoo they use, how many cavities they have, their greatest fear, I don't actually see their faces.

I don't tend to picture my characters as actors and actresses.

When I write, I never think of segments as chapters; I think of them as scenes. I always visualize them in my mind. Then I try to get the scene down on paper as closely as I can. That's the one thing that readers don't see - what you have in your mind. The reader can only see what you get on the page.

Most writers, I'm afraid, live very boring lives sitting in front of a screen. However, having said that: every writer puts a bit of themselves into the characters to bring them alive.

The formula for creative writing in high school or college is write what you know. And I said they don't know nothing. Imagine something. Do you know what it's like to be a Madame in Paris, when you're too old to have any clients. No, you don't. I don't either. Write about it.

They [my characters]speak to me all the time! In fact some of them never shut up!

What I do in the writing of any character is to try to enter into the mind, heart and skin of a human being who is not myself. It is the act of a writer's imagination that I set the most high.

I talk to myself on paper about my characters - sometimes writing in first person... I keep lists of unanswered questions that I can always turn to in order to get myself going.

I write about relationships and I try to create real-life characters.