Character Quotes - Page 21

• I hate those endless descriptions of a heroine's physical attributes . . . it really bothers me how in books it seems like the only two choices are perfection or self-hatred. As if readers will only like a character who's ideal--or completely shattered.

  E. Lockhart

  Hate, Book, Self

  E. Lockhart (2016). “Ruby Oliver 1: The Boyfriend List”, p.19, Bonnier Publishing Fiction Ltd.

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• Over the years I have forged intimate familial ties with these characters, who are reflections of a portion of myself. Consequently, even a character who appeared only once in a short story waits now in the wings, concealed by the curtain, for his next appearance on-stage. Not one of them has ever broken free of his familial ties with me and disappeared for ever - at least, not within the confines of my heart.

  Shusaku Endo

  Heart, Reflection, Years

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• Which of us has not felt that the character we are reading in the printed page is more real than the person standing beside us?

  Cornelia Funke

  Real, Reading, Pages

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• She would be quiet at first. Then she would say a word about something small, something she had noticed, and then another word, and another, each one flung out like a little piece of sand, one from this direction, another form behind, more and more, until his looks, his character, his soul would have eroded away . . . I was afraid that some unseen speck of truth would fly into my eye, blur what I was seeing and transform him from the divine man I thought he was into someone quite mundane, mortally wounded with tiresome habits and irritating imperfections.

  Amy Tan

  Eye, Men, Imperfection

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• When a good man is hurt, all who would be called good must suffer with him.

  Euripides

  Hurt, Men, Empathy

  Euripides, Dudley Fitts, Robert Fitzgerald (1936). “The Alcestis of Euripides: An English Version”

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• We start out in identical perfection: bright, reflective, full of sun. The accident of our lives bruises us into dirty individuality. We meet with grief. Our character dulls and tarnishes. We meet with guilt. We know, we know: the price of living is corruption. There isn’t as much light as there once was. In the grave we lapse back into undifferentiated sameness

  Gregory Maguire

  Grief, Dirty, Light

  Gregory Maguire (2009). “A Lion Among Men: Volume Three in The Wicked Years”, p.8, Harper Collins

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• I am not shy about admitting my modest talents. For example, I am happy to admit that I am better than average at clever remarks, and I also have a flair for getting people to like me. But to be perfectly fair to myself, I am ever-ready to confess my shortcomings, too, and a quick round of soul-searching forced me to admit that I had never been any good at all at breathing water. As I hung there from the seat belt, dazed and watching the water pour in and swirl around my head, this began to seem like a very large character flaw.

  Jeff Lindsay

  Clever, Smart, Average

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• Don't separate the mind from the body. Don't separate even character - you can't. Our unit of existence is a body, a physical, tangible, sensate entity with perceptions and reactions that express it and form it simultaneously. Disease is one of our languages. Doctors understand what disease has to say about itself. It's up to the person with the disease to understand what the disease has to say to her.

  Susanna Kaysen

  Doctors, Perception, Mind

  Susanna Kaysen (2001). “The Camera My Mother Gave Me”, p.126, Vintage

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• It is difficult to hate an idea. That requires a certain intellectual discipline and a slightly obsessive, sick mind. There aren’t too many of those. It’s much easier to hate someone with a recognizable face whom we can blame for everything that makes us feel uncomfortable. It doesn’t have to be an individual character. It could be a nation, a race, a group. . .anything.

  Carlos Ruiz Zafon

  Hate, Race, Ideas

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• It takes character to withstand the rigours of indolence.

  Tom Stoppard

  Indolence, Rigour

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• I was exhilarated by the new realization that I could change the character of my life by changing my beliefs. I was instantly energized because I realized that there was a science-based path that would take me from my job as a perennial “victim” to my new position as “co-creator” of my destiny. (Prologue, xv)

  Bruce H. Lipton

  Jobs, Destiny, Realization

  Bruce H. Lipton (2010). “The Biology of Belief: Unleashing the Power of Consciousness, Matter and Miracles: Easyread Large Edition”, p.11, ReadHowYouWant.com

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• I met Pendragon when I made the journey to the far desert. He is from the tribe known as...as..." Loor was scrambling. Bokka didn't know about the Travelers. I had to bail her out. Yankees," I said. "The Yankees tribe." Hey, what can I say? It was the first thing that came to mind. "It's a strong tribe," I added. "Respected by all...except for our mortal enemies, the Sox tribe. They hate us. Especially the Red ones. Cannibals. Nasty characters.

  D. J. MacHale

  Strong, Hate, Journey

  D.J. MacHale (2012). “Pendragon Books 6-10: The Rivers of Zadaa; The Quillan Games; The Pilgrims of Rayne; Raven Rise; The Soldiers of Halla”, p.45, Simon and Schuster

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• The most futile thing in this world is any attempt, perhaps, at exact definition of character. All individuals are a bundle of contradictions - none more so than the most capable.

  Theodore Dreiser

  Honesty, World, Definitions

  Theodore Dreiser (2015). “The Financier: Top American Novels”, p.78, 谷月社

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• Worthy character is best forged from a life of consistent, correct choices centered in the teachings of the Master.

  Richard G. Scott

  Teaching, Choices, Masters

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• True faith rests upon the character of God and asks no further proof than the moral perfections of the One who cannot lie.

  Aiden Wilson Tozer

  Faith, Lying, Perfection

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• It troubles him to consider the powerful currents and fine-tuning that alter fate, the close and distant influences, the accidents of character and circumstance.

  Ian Mcewan

  Powerful, Fate, Tuning

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• Too often do reviewers remind us of the mob of Astrologers, Chaldeans, and Soothsayers gathered before 'the writing on the wall' and unable to read the characters or make known the interpretation.

  Charlotte Bronte

  Wall, Writing, Interpretation

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• A reader doesn't really see the characters in a story; he feels them.

  Cornelia Funke

  Stories, Inkheart, Reader

  "Inkdeath". Book by Cornelia Funke, www.seventeen.com. 2007.

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• PLOT is CHARACTER revealed by ACTION.

  Aristotle

  Plot, Action

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• In his opinion, working was vastly overrated. Particularly as a way to build character, for everyone who engaged in it was far too snappish and fussy, and seemed to have no manners at all.

  Hilari Bell

  Attitude, Way, Opinion

  Hilari Bell (2009). “Crown of Earth”, p.77, Simon and Schuster

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• Times will change for the better when you change.

  Maxwell Maltz

  Motivational, Work, Life Changing

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• The majority of people are ready to throw their aims and purposes overboard, and give up at the first sign of opposition or misfortune. A few carry on DESPITE all opposition, until they attain their goal. These few are the Fords, Carnegies, Rockefellers, and Edisons. There may be no heroic connotation to the word persistence, but the quality is to the character of man what carbon is to steel.

  Napoleon Hill

  Giving Up, Persistence, Men

  Napoleon Hill (2012). “Napoleon Hill Collection”, p.113, Penguin

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• I've found that the way a person feels about cats-and the way they feel about him or her in return-is usually an excellent gauge by which to measure a person's character

  P. C. Cast

  Cat, Gauges, Way

  P. C. Cast, Kristin Cast (2013). “House of Night Series”, p.40, Macmillan

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• The shreiking fight or the out-of-character insult endures forever, while the daily sweetness dissolves like sugar in water.

  Mary Karr

  Fighting, Water, Forever

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• A man's magic demonstrates what sort of person he is, what is held most deeply inside of him. There is no truer gauge of a man's character than the way in which he employs his strength, his power. I was not a murderer. I was not like Victor Sells. I was Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden. I was a wizard. Wizards control their power. They don't let it control them. And wizards don't use magic to kill people. They use it to discover, to protect, to mend, to help. Not to destroy.

  Jim Butcher

  Men, People, Magic

  Jim Butcher (2000). “Storm Front: Book one of The Dresden Files”, p.257, Penguin Group

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