W. Somerset Maugham Quotes

All that matters to me as a reader are characters. I want characters to be real, authentic, and rounded. I will be digging into characters for at least a month. Who they are. What they are like. Outside of the story.

From a writer's standpoint, each character and story presents its own unique challenges and delights. I'm deeply curious about all of my characters, and I love peeling away their layers to see what's underneath their skin, or secreted deep within their hearts.

My work is to know the characters intimately and to tell their story.

Let your characters talk to each other and do things. Spend time with them - they'll tell you who they are and what they're up to.

I don't think about the stories so much, as the characters themselves. They live on, and they are almost as real as I am.

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

I locate that special problem in a character and then try to understand it. That's the genesis of all my work.

Never argue with your characters; they know themselves better than you do.

As a novelist, I tend to know significantly more about my characters than I do about my friends.

What fascinates me as a writer is the stuff underneath, To me, what drives a novel is the curiosity behind the character and the depths that you want to find in that character.

If you can find a way your character moves, you know more about your character than you'd ever dream.

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.

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 felt like if I could get the epiphany out of the way in my drafting process, through my eighth or tenth draft, then that can just be part of how I've assembled the character, and then we can move on and move forward with it. In general, I don't ever want to feel smarter than my characters, because I just feel like that's not a great way to write a story.

Also, as an author, character has always been what I'm most interested in - much more so than plot or setting, although those are good things too.

I think it's important that a director be able to know his characters inside and out.

The funny thing is that I feel close to all my characters. Deep, deep inside them all.

Often, writer's block will occur when I don't understand a character or his/her motivations. So I will make notes analysing characters.

When I get a role, I try to delve as deeply as possible into the character.

Any time you get to dig deeper into your character, you welcome it, especially on a TV show.

Don't start writing your novel until you know your characters very, very well. What they'd do if they saw somebody shoplifting. What they were like at school. What shoes they wear. Spend days - weeks, months - being them until they thicken up and start to breathe.

When a script moves me, I find that I immediately understand a character. Of course not completely, but I do understand.

On the surface, it's really easy to dismiss certain characters, but sometimes you find that the most interesting parts are disappointingly shallow. It's your job as an actress to pull that person apart, and work out why they act the way that they do.

'Longmire' is more of a show about the characters, and you couldn't pay a bigger compliment than to want to know more about my character, or the characters on the show.

I spend a lot of time with my characters.