Protagonists Quotes - Page 4

• Storytelling is an act of cruelty. We are cruel to our characters because to be kind is to invite boredom, and boredom in storytelling is synonymous with big doomy death-shaped death. So: be cruel to your protagonist. Rob him of something. Something important. Something he needs. A weapon. An asset. A piece of knowledge. A loved one. A DELICIOUS PIE. Take it away! Force him to operate without it. Conflict reinvigorates stale stories. New conflict, or old conflict that has evolved and grown teeth.

  Chuck Wendig

  Character, Writing, Pie

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• I'm not a citizen of America, I cannot vote. But it is fascinating because there's a new kind of protagonist out there that we didn't expect. By the way, I'm not in any panic at all.

  Werner Herzog

  America, Citizens, Panic

  Source: www.sfgate.com

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• I absolute adore epic journeys that require a protagonist to fight for every victory in the hopes of finding triumph.

  Megan Chance

  Fighting, Epic, Journey

  "Kristin Hannah and Megan Chance on 'The Nightingale'". Interview With Erin Kodicek, www.amazonbookreview.com. January 28, 2015.

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• The label YA actually means nothing except that the protagonists, or some of them, are young. Publishers like it because it is a secure marketing niche. But the cost of security is exclusion from literary consideration.

  Ursula K. Le Guin

  Mean, Marketing, Exclusion

  Source: www.guernicamag.com

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• There are definitely parts of me in most of the protagonists I write, but I find a bit of distance can be useful, so I often find myself better able to write from a point of view that isn't exactly my own.

  John K. Samson

  Distance, Writing, Views

  Source: www.independent.co.uk

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• Shamefulness is always a huge part of my characterizations. I like protagonists that reveal, either through "honesty" in their various thought processes or via their actions, perhaps telling us things they're not so keen on disclosing through their interactions with the outside world. Probably both during the duration of a novel.

  Joshua Mohr

  Honesty, World, Duration

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• In male-driven [films], the protagonist is not the person who's necessarily in harms way. There's a sense that they're going to figure out how to persevere and take on the obstacles and foes and you don't necessarily know if that's going to happen with the subjects of love stories.

  Todd Haynes

  Males, Stories, Way

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

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• Lars is played by Ryan Gosling, the Prince of Tics, whose idea of acting is to wait a few beats before reacting to other people's remarks, as if acting were merely a matter of adhering to the seven-second delay rule. Jack Nicholson has made a career out of doing this sort of thing, as did Paul Newman, as did Marlon Brando (who the other two learned it from), but they didn't do it all the time and they were more fun to look at... Lars And The Real Girl joins a number of other recent films in the category of motion pictures where the director doesn't know that his protagonist is unsympathetic.

  Joe Queenan

  Girl, Fun, Real

  "Mannequin for all seasons" by Joe Queenan, www.theguardian.com. March 14, 2008.

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• Also, getting the chance to play a supporting part meant that I didn't have to do as much as the protagonist, such as running around telling the story. [As the protagonist] you push the story whereas, paradoxically, as a character part, you have a chance to explore some of the nuance and some of the more complicated aspects of a character.

  Ben Affleck

  Running, Character, Play

  Interview with Rob Carnevale, www.indielondon.co.uk.

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• Fiction is about human beings, first and foremost. (It's not impossible to write fiction with no human protagonists, but it's very hard to keep the reader interested ...)

  Charles Stross

  Writing, Fiction, Firsts

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• I've always wanted to play a soldier and I'd never taken on a character where I'm the happy-go-lucky protagonist. I've played a lot of jerks recently.

  Jesse McCartney

  Taken, Character, Play

  "5 Questions with Jesse McCartney". Interview with Jarett Wieselman, www.etonline.com. March 22, 2013.

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• For the blockbusters, people were always telling me that if you write female protagonists, the boys won't go, so you have to put the boys' stuff in it to get everybody. I write for people from 8 to 80, and that's not easy.

  Linda Woolverton

  Writing, Boys, People

  Source: blogs.indiewire.com

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• I really get fired up with female protagonists. I can really feel the difference in myself when I am writing a script that has a woman at the center.

  Linda Woolverton

  Writing, Differences, Female

  Source: blogs.indiewire.com

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• With me it started as a child, going to the theater and being totally transported but also walking out of the theater thinking I was the protagonist in the film and reenacting the scenes.

  Oscar Torre

  Children, Thinking, Film

  Source: blogs.indiewire.com

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• At the heart of any successful film is a powerful story. And a story should be just that: a narrative with a beginning, middle, and end, powerful protagonists that audiences can identify with, and a dramatic arc that is able to capture and hold viewers' intellectual and emotional attention.

  Julia Bacha

  Powerful, Heart, Successful

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• The most important thing in the job is to make movies about women where they are characters that have consequences in the story. They can be villains, they can be protagonists, I don't care but their movements, their actions what they do in the plot has to actually matter.

  Amy Pascal

  Jobs, Character, Important

  Source: blogs.indiewire.com

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• Doctor Mengele is such a powerful character historically, as powerful as Nazism itself, so these subjects always tend to be the protagonists. What I think is that despite this historical references, Wakolda or The German Doctor is a very intimate story.

  Lucia Puenzo

  Powerful, Character, Thinking

  Source: blogs.indiewire.com

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• Girlchild . . . unfolds a compelling, layered narrative told by a protagonist with a voice so fresh, original, and funny you'll be in awe. This novel rocks . . . In Girlchild Tupelo Hassman has created a character you'll never forget. Rory Dawn Hendrix of the Calle has as precocious and endearing a voice as Holden Caulfield of Central Park. When you finish this novel, your sorrow at turning the last page will be eased by your excitement at what this sassy, talented author will do next.

  Mameve Medwed

  Character, Sassy, Central Park

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• My writing derived from the conviction I conceived during my college years: one should lead one's life as if one were the protagonist of an epic novel, with the outcome predetermined and chapter after chapter of edifying, traumatic, and exhilarating events to be suffered through. Since the end is known in advance, one must try to experience as much as possible in the brief time allotted. Writing is a way of ensuring that you pay enough attention along the way to understand what you see.

  Jeffrey Tayler

  Writing, Epic, College

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• We knew the Syrian situation was complex and there were lots of divisions, particularly on the side of the opposition... This is a tough job... It can perhaps be done if you stand united and work with me in putting sustained pressure on the protagonists or the parties to come together and seek a political settlement.

  Kofi Annan

  Jobs, Party, Political

  "Kofi Annan on 40 Years Trying to End War, Promote Peace at the United Nations". Interview with Jeffrey Brown, www.kofiannanfoundation.org. September 20, 2012.

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• In the average European oil painting of the nude the principal protagonist is never painted. He is the spectator in front of the picture and he is presumed to be a man.

  John Berger

  Men, Average, Oil

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• I think in any movie really the two most interesting parts are the protagonist and the antagonist.

  Cung Le

  Thinking, Two, Interesting

  Source: www.moviesonline.ca

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• In the modern era, it isn't enough to write, you must also be the Writer, with a capital 'W,' and play your part as the protagonist in the cautionary narrative in which you will fail or triumph, be in or out, hot or cold, ride the wheel of fortune.

  Tony Kushner

  Writing, Play, Triumph

  Source: www.guernicamag.com

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• I really loved ["The Love Affairs of Nathaniel P" by Adelle Waldman]. It's having a really hot moment. Unlike many hot books, it's actually really wonderful. I tend to have that reaction: I don't want to read it if everyone thinks it's cool. It was a really interesting insight into being young and male. Now that made me feel really thankful for my boyfriend and really thankful because he wasn't like that protagonist, but I know so many people who are like that protagonist.

  Lena Dunham

  Book, Thinking, Interesting

  Source: www.teachingbooks.net

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• The violence for me is never meant to be entertaining. It's meant to hurt the characters and I'm trying to show the impact it is having on the people involved with it. If there is cathartic violence at the end, then it costs the protagonist something. It's not just a blaze-of-glory moment.

  Charlie Huston

  Hurt, Character, Impact

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