Character Quote by C. S. Lewis

I really do believe that people surprise you. And one of the powerful things about novels is that they're about characters, and those characters…

— Mohsin Hamid

Others are to us like the characters in fiction, eternal and incorrigible; the surprises they give us turn out in the end to have…

— Mary McCarthy

“Good characters in fiction are the very devil. Not only because most authors have too little material to make them of, but because we…

— C.S. Lewis

That's the thing about fiction writers: what seems alarming or particular or perverse about them is simply the shape of their brain - they…

— Zadie Smith

I know when I go and see a writer, the first thing I think to myself is, 'Are they the character in the book?'…

— Irvine Welsh

Poorly written novels--no matter how pious and edifying the behavior of the characters--are not good in themselves and are therefore not really edifying.

— Flannery O'Connor

Most good fiction also has a character the writer seems to know more deeply than anyone can actually be known in life, but a…

— Nell Freudenberger

It's the writer's job to stage confrontations, so the characters will say surprising and revealing things, and educate and entertain us all.

— Kurt Vonnegut

I like to be surprised. Fresh implications and plot twists erupt as a story unfolds. Characters develop backgrounds, adding depth and feeling. Writing feels…

— David Brin

At the core, I try to write characters who are real people with real insecurities, fears, hopes, and dreams, which is why hopefully readers…

— Ally Carter

Novelists are in the business of constructing consciousness out of words, and that's what we all do, cradle to grave. The self is a…

— James Gleick

How many writers are there... who, breaking up their subject into details, destroy its life, and defraud us of the whole by their anxiety…

— John Henry Newman