Character Quotes

9624 Character quotes by 4950 unique authors

I never started from ideas but always from character. — Ivan Turgenev
The test of any good fiction is that you should care something for the characters; the good to succeed, the bad to fail. The trouble… — Mark Twain
One of my standard - and fairly true - responses to the question as to how story ideas come to me is that story ideas… — Roger Zelazny
I hate outlines. I have a broad sense of where the story is going; I know the end, I know the end of the principal… — George R. R. Martin
I don't like the strictly objective viewpoint [in which all of the characters' actions are described in the third person, but we never hear what… — George R. R. Martin
I'm a strong believer in telling stories through a limited but very tight third person point of view. I have used other techniques during my… — George R. R. Martin
When I think about [characters], I like to think of them in their relationships to each other. In the same way, I think that's how… — John Green
I imagine them very clearly and then attempt to describe what I can see. Sometimes I draw them for my own amusement! (talking about her… — Joanne Kathleen Rowling
I can write anywhere. I made up the names of the characters on a sick bag while I was on an airplane. I told this… — Joanne Kathleen Rowling
Every sentence must do one of two things-reveal character or advance the action. — Kurt Vonnegut
Creating characters is like throwing together ingredients for a recipe. I take characteristics I like and dislike in real people I know, or know of,… — Cassandra Clare
My characters talk to one another, and when it reaches a certain pitch of excitement I jump out of bed and run and trap them… — Ray Bradbury
Just don't pretend you know more about your characters than they do, because you don't. Stay open to them. It's teatime and all the dolls… — Anne Lamott
What must novel dialogue . . . really be and do? It must be pointed, intentional, relevant. It must crystallize situation. It must express character.… — Elizabeth Bowen
Dialogue is the ideal means of showing what is between the characters. It crystallizes relationships. It should, ideally, be so effective as to make analysis… — Elizabeth Bowen
Short of a small range of physical acts-a fight, murder, lovemaking-dialogue is the most vigorous and visible inter-action of which characters in a novel are… — Elizabeth Bowen
Jane Austen, much in advance of her day, was a mistress of the use of the dialogue. She used it as dialogue should be used-to… — Elizabeth Bowen
A writer's voice is not character alone, it is not style alone; it is far more. A writer's voice line the stroke of an artist's… — Patricia Lee Gauch
All characters are based on elements of a writer's personal experience. — Unknown Author
It's dialogue that gives your cast their voices, and is crucial in defining their characters. — Stephen King

Who Wrote These Character Quotes

4,950 authors contributed a total of 9,624 Character Quotes, led by these top contributors: