James McBride Quotes

Imagining what a character will do in a given situation - it's like an equation, and working it out is a marathon rather than a sprint.

I spent some time, six months or so, ruminating about the characters before I sat down to write 'Faith'.

Writing a novel is actually searching for victims. As I write I keep looking for casualties. The stories uncover the casualties.

That's the way it happens - some characters you set out to use, some are happy accidents. As long as it works, it doesn't really matter how you got them.

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

I'm always determined that as a novelist I'm going to go out there and research my characters very thoroughly before I start writing.

I find it very hard to sit down and create an idea or especially a new character on command. Usually my characters evolve by accident out of some story context.

I do a lot better if I sit around and think about a character for a couple of months.

I work out the other bits, too, but I need to know what I look like, very early on. And then it's like a template; I'll fill that person out. If I get that out of the way, then I'm all right.

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

Writers often say that characters begin to write themselves, and I never used to believe that. I always thought that was complete hogwash.

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 became, and remain, my characters' close and intent watcher: their director, never. Their creator I cannot feel that I was, or am.

You spend so much time writing a character the way I did with Buddy Baker and then Green Arrow that you start to care about them. And you almost think of them as people, you know?

How I work is I work from of very character-driven place. And I trust the writers.

One of the greatest things about 'Continuum' is how great the writing is; our writing room is one of the most talented ones I've ever had. It really helps me as far as character development because they paint a very descriptive picture of who the characters are while still letting us have freedom to put in our own ideas.

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.

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

I like to make definite choices and give my characters as many unique edges as possible.

After a while, the characters I'm writing begin to feel real to me. That's when I know I'm heading in the right direction.

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

I make a rod for my own back because people see my novels as quasi documentaries. But it is never history that's the main event of my books. It's my characters.

There is always going to be a little bit of me in each character.

When I'm writing a story, which takes me a year or more, I can feel my character living with me - they're responding to whatever funny, familial, or social situation I'm in, and I think about their responses constantly.

I enjoy the writing process and producing; I enjoy seeing an idea come to fruition. I'm driven by very complex characters. You look at the pilot of 'Breaking Bad,' where there's so much depth to the character, you can't help but be invested when you watch.