Character Quote by Phyllis Bottome

Considerations of plot do a great deal of heavy lifting when it comes to long-form narrative - readers will overlook the most ham-fisted prose…

— Lynn Coady

Any writer would rather dig into character than dig into fancy plots.

— Michael Connelly

A writer has to true to him or herself. Period. That’s it!

— Jhumpa Lahiri

I believe that the writer should tell a story. I believe in plot. I believe in creating characters and suspense.

— Ernest Gaines

An author's characters do what he wants them to do.

— W. E. B. Griffin

“If a writer doesn't believe his fictional characters are actually real, how can he expect the readers to?”

— Jim Power

The characters write the plot. Their natures do.

— Norman Rush

If Ive vividly laid out the narrative, the reader will come to his own conclusions.

— Rick Atkinson

A story always tells the truth about the true intention of the storyteller, regardless of the plot

— Unknwon

The novelist has a responsibility to adhere to the facts as closely as possible, and if they are inconvenient, that's where the art comes…

— Hilary Mantel

“Novelists congratulate themselves on their creation of this kind of “character” or that kind of “character,” and readers pretend to talk knowingly about “character,”…

— Sōseki Natsume

Fiction writers can’t be trusted. They make things up.

— Dan Poynter