Others

I don’t like to throw characters into a plot as though it were a raging torrent where they are swept along. What interests me are the complications and nuances of character. Few of my characters are described externally; we see them from the inside out.

I don’t like to throw characters into a plot as though it were a raging torrent where they are swept along. What interests me are the complications and nuances of character. Few of my characters are described externally; we see them from the inside out.

That trite little whimsy about characters getting out of hand; it is as old as the quills. My characters are galley slaves.

The moment comes when a character does or says something you hadn’t thought about. At that moment he’s alive and you leave it to him.

The moment comes when a character does or says something you hadn’t thought about. At that moment he’s alive and you leave it to him.

Naming your characters Aristotle and Plato is not going to make their relationship interesting unless you make it so on the page.

If you’re silent for a long time, people just arrive in your mind.

A character has his own logic. He goes his way, one goes with him; he has some perceptions, one perceives them with him. You do him justice; you don’t grind your own axe.

The characters have their own lives and their own logic, and you have to act accordingly.

When I used to teach creative writing, I would tell the students to make their characters want something right away—even if it’s only a glass of water. Characters paralyzed by the meaninglessness of modern life still have to drink water from time to time.

When I used to teach creative writing, I would tell the students to make their characters want something right away—even if it’s only a glass of water. Characters paralyzed by the meaninglessness of modern life still have to drink water from time to time.

A character, to be acceptable as more than a chess piece, has to be ignorant of the future, unsure about the past, and not at all sure of what he’s supposed to be doing.

The character that lasts is an ordinary guy with some extraordinary qualities.

A novelist’s characters must be with him as he lies down to sleep, and as he wakes from his dreams. He must learn to hate them and to love them.

The bad novelist constructs his characters; he directs them and makes them speak. The true novelist listens to them and watches them act; he hears their voices even before he knows them.

The bad novelist constructs his characters; he directs them and makes them speak. The true novelist listens to them and watches them act; he hears their voices even before he knows them.

You can never know enough about your characters.

Begin with an individual and you find that you have created a type; begin with a type and you find that you have created—nothing.

When writing a novel a writer should create living people; people, not characters. A character is a caricature.

It isn't right to judge strength as better than good wisdom.

All men begin their learning with Homer.

No human being will ever know the Truth, for even if they happen to say it by chance, they would not even known they had done so.

Whoever thinks that he alone has speech, or possesses speech or mind above others, when unfolded such men are seen to be empty.

A wise doctor does not mutter incantations over a sore that needs the knife.