Character Quotes - Page 38

• You're breaking out of character, again.

  Dave Eggers

  Dave Eggers (2000). “A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius”

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• I went to bed last night utterly dejected; I thought I was never going to amount to anything, and that you had thrown away your money for nothing. But what do you think? I woke up this morning with a beautiful new plot in my head, and I've been going about all day planning my characters, just as happy as I could be. No one can ever accuse me of being a pessimist! If I had a husband and twelve children swallowed by an earthquake one day, I'd bob up smilingly the next morning and commence to look for another set. ~Jershua Abbott

  Jean Webster

  Beautiful, Morning, Children

  Jean Webster (2016). “Daddy Long-Legs and Dear Enemy: Illustrated”, p.102, Jester House Publishing

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• I would so hate to be a first-person character! Always on your guard, always having people read your thoughts!

  Jasper Fforde

  Hate, People, Firsts

  Jasper Fforde (2013). “The Thursday Next Collection 1-3: The Eyre Affair, Lost in a Good Book, The Well of Lost Plots”, p.462, Hachette UK

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• I write because I want more than one life; I insist on a wider selection. It’s greed, plain and simple. When my characters join the circus, I’m joining the circus. Although I’m happily married, I spent a great deal of time mentally living with incompatible husbands.

  Anne Tyler

  Husband, Writing, Simple

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• Aria: I went to Hollis. Because I was looking for...you know. Her. She was teaching an art class, so I ran inside, grabbed a paintbrush, and painted a scarlet A across her chest. You know, like that woman in The Scarlet Letter? It was awesome. She didn't know what hit her. And then I said, 'Now everyone will know what you've done'. Ella: Do you realize that Hester Prynne is supposed to be a sympathetic character?

  Sara Shepard

  Art, Teaching, Class

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• Dependability, integrity, the characteristic of never knowingly doing anything wrong, that you would never cheat anyone, that you would give everybody a fair deal. Character is a sort of an all-inclusive thing. If a man has character, everyone has confidence in him.

  Omar N. Bradley

  Integrity, Men, Giving

  "19 Stars : A Study in Military Character and Leadership". Book by Edgar F. Puryear Jr., 1981.

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• I cannot write any sort of story unless there is at least one character in it for whom I have physical desire.

  Tennessee Williams

  Writing, Desire, Stories

  Tennessee Williams (1994). “Collected Stories”, p.23, New Directions Publishing

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• The degree of civilization in a society can be judged by entering its prisons.

  Fyodor Dostoevsky

  Honesty, Integrity, Civilization

  The House of the Dead (1862) (translation by Constance Garnett) See Pearl S. Buck 2; Ramsey Clark 1; Humphrey 3; Samuel Johnson 69; Helen Keller 4

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• Personally, I believe “Young Adult” to be an arbitrary title that means the book "Can be enjoyed by anyone/Has a main character who’s not quite an adult/Isn’t really boring.

  Shannon Hale

  Believe, Book, Mean

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• Your reputation is what you're perceived to be, Your character is what you really are

  John Wooden

  Inspirational, Reputation

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• A king is a man strong of character and conviction who leads by example and truly cares for the suffering of his people,not a brute who rules simply because he is the strongest.

  R. A. Salvatore

  Strong, Kings, Men

  R.A. Salvatore (2009). “The Crystal Shard: The Legend of Drizzt”, p.118, Wizards of the Coast

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• ...it is how a person goes about quenching his desires or living with them unrequited that the readers get a glimpse of his true character.

  Michael Connelly

  Desire, Glimpse, Reader

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• Recognizing power in another does not diminish your own.

  Joss Whedon

  Power, Doe, Recognizing

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• It's rather disconcerting to sit around a table in a critique of someone else's work, only to realize that the antagonist in the story is none other than yourself, and no one present thinks you're a very likable character.

  Michelle Richmond

  Thinking, Stories, Tables

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• Writing is hard work, and if anything's true about the process, it's that fact that a good story is hard to find and even trickier to get on paper. What's less romantic than staring alone at a blank screen? And edgy? I've changed the cat little because I didn't know what my characters were going to say next.

  Adam Johnson

  Hard Work, Writing, Cat

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• A novel is not an allegory.... It is the sensual experience of another world. If you don't enter that world, hold your breath with the characters and become involved in their destiny, you won't be able to empathize, and empathy is at the heart of the novel. This is how you read a novel: you inhale the experience. So start breathing.

  Azar Nafisi

  Heart, Destiny, Breathing

  Azar Nafisi (2003). “Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books”, p.111, Random House

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• Rebellion is necessary for development of character.

  Cynthia Voigt

  Development, Rebellion

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• Don't equate activity with efficiency. You are paying your key people to see the big picture. Don't let them get bogged down in a lot of meaningless meetings and paper shuffling. Announce a Friday afternoon off once in a while. Cancel a Monday morning meeting or two. Tell the cast of characters you'd like them to spend the amount of time normally spent preparing for attending the meeting at their desks, simply thinking about an original idea.

  Harvey Mackay

  Friday, Monday, Morning

  Harvey Mackay (1996). “Swim with the Sharks Without Being Eaten Alive: Outsell, Outmanage, Outmotivate, & Outnegotiate Your Competition”, Ballantine Books

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• Character is doing what you don't want to do but know you should do.

  Joyce Meyer

  Want, Should, Knows

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• I'd like to find whoever taught the Stump that extra work builds character and push him down the stairs," Neal told Kel at lunch.

  Tamora Pierce

  Lunch, Taught, Stumps

  Tamora Pierce (2014). “Protector of the Small Quartet”, p.81, Random House Books for Young Readers

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• I start with a tingle, a kind of feeling of the story I will write. Then come the characters, and they take over, they make the story.

  Isak Dinesen

  Writing, Feelings, Stories

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• One man cannot do right in one department of life whilst he is occupied in doing wrong in any other department. Life is one indivisible whole

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Inspirational, Life, Spiritual

  Mahatma Gandhi (1927). “Young India”

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• There are essential and inessential insanities. The later are solar in character, the former are linked to the moon.

  Tom Robbins

  Moon, Insanity, Essentials

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• My characters are more like men than these real men are, see. They're rough and rude, they got hands and they got bellies. They hate and they lust; break the skin of civilization and you find the ape, roaring and red-handed.

  Robert E. Howard

  Hate, Real, Men

  Letter to Harold Preece, c. January or February 1928.

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• I never ask my wife about my flaws. Instead I try to get her to ignore them and concentrate on my sense of humor. You don't want any woman to look under the carpet because there's lots of flaws underneath. Joanne believes my character in a film we did together, "Mr. and Mrs. Bridge" comes closest to who I really am. I personally don't think there's one character who comes close... but I learned a long time ago not to disagree on things that I don't have a solid opinion about.

  Paul Newman

  Believe, Thinking, Bridges

  "Newman remains animated at 81". Craig Modderno, Reuters, June 12, 2006.

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