Character Quote by Mario Vargas Llosa

Few characters in history are indispensable.

— Albert Bushnell Hart

The character thing really is sort of, for me, personally, rather ancient history.

— David Bowie

I have a rule: I will not alter the basic history of a real-life character to suit our fictional needs in a big way.

— Terence Winter

Freedom and independence form my character.

— Mustafa Kemal Ataturk

You can't play history and you can't play historical characters. You just have to reduce it to the ordinary.

— Lorraine Toussaint

When the venture has been made of dealing with historical events and characters, it always seems fair towards the reader to avow what liberties…

— Charlotte Mary Yonge

When writing about historical characters I try to be as accurate as possible, and in particular not to misrepresent the view they held. With…

— Pat Barker

The great thing about using the past is that it gives you the most colossal freedom to invent. The research is necessary, of course,…

— Peter Carey

Some of my characters are a mixture of various aspects of people I have met. others are pure invention.

— Alexander McCall Smith

I could imagine that a character could do almost anything at any time, and that was the freedom of the whole thing. But keeping…

— Steven Amsterdam

Historical fiction is not history. You're blending real events and actual historical personages with characters of your own creation.

— George R. R. Martin

Well, I think it can be quite helpful to be working on a character who actually existed, historically. Of course, you might have material…

— Gaspard Ulliel