Character Quote by Simon Tam

Too often, we get attention and sympathy by being a victim. If we're invested in someone being our villain, we must love being the…

— Regina Brett

Villains are mostly just people villainized by circumstance

— Chris Colfer

The desire to punish is a desire that emanates from a place of equality and justice. The lesson I feel that we have to…

— Chris Hayes

“Readers often root for characters that are innocent victims – or who are subjected to forces beyond their control.”

— Rob Parnell

Mistrust those in whom the urge to punish is strong.

— Friedrich Nietzsche

I think that's happened throughout time in terms of how we treat villains. It's sometimes where the most interesting and seemingly troubled or stifled…

— Fred Hechinger

I'm not sure why I'm so drawn to heroes who do bad things and to villains who think they're the good guys, but I…

— Barry Eisler

I suppose my understanding of villains is that they're just people who are infected by all of the darker instincts - that they haven't…

— Tom Hiddleston

We like to put people on a pedestal, give them one character trait, and if they step outside of that shrinelike area that we…

— Madonna Ciccone

Let me put it this way: I definitely need to understand the villains I play. The best cause pain to anesthetize themselves against their…

— Ron Perlman

After all, tragedy didn't discriminate, so everyone was subject to the same whims of fate.

— J.R. Ward

Nobody can be forced to commit an act of villainy. You can't push anybody into the mud; people always step into it themselves.

— Sergei Lukyanenko