Affair Quote by Mark Twain

When I start writing these novels, I go into them with a spirit of inquiry rather than to substantiate prejudices I had in the…

— Ruth Ozeki

“No fiction can have real interest if the central character is not an agent struggling for his or her own goals but a victim,…

— John Gardner

There is a natural disposition with us to judge an author's personal character by the character of his works. We find it difficult to…

— Edwin Percy Whipple

If you connect emotionally with the plight of those characters, ou feel what they feel and you walk away with a sense of understanding…

— Khaled Hosseini

A good novelist loves all of his characters, he lives in them, even in those who commit or must commit terrible acts.

— Liao Yiwu

Readers of novels often fall into the bad habit of being overly exacting about the characters' moral flaws. They apply to these fictional beings…

— Edmund White

All the best novels are about one thing: how we go on. The characters must survive the fallout of their own cowardice, folly, denial…

— Julia Glass

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

I don't believe novels should carry an obvious message. I don't want to write characters you can immediately say are good or bad; as…

— Christopher Koch

We are all potentially characters in a novel--with the difference that characters in a novel really get to live their lives to the full.

— Georges Simenon

If you have great characters, then your reader becomes emotionally invested in those people.

— Lawrence Wright

People who act against their own best interests are interesting characters.

— Paul Schrader