Protagonists Quotes - Page 5

• 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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• Protagonists are always loners, almost by definition.

  Pauline Kael

  Hero, Loner, Definitions

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• The Greeks were the first intellectualists. In a world where the irrational had played the chief role, they came forward as the protagonists of the mind.

  Edith Hamilton

  Greek, Mind, Firsts

  Edith Hamilton (1987). “The Greek way ; The Roman way”, Random House Value Pub

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• In the history of enterprise, most of the protagonists of major new products and companies began their education - not in the classroom, where the old ways are taught, but in the factories and labs where new ways are wrought ... nothing has been so rare in recent years as an Ivy League graduate who has made a significant innovation in American enterprise.

  George Gilder

  Years, Ivy, League

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• With the crime novels, its delightful to have protagonists I can revisit in book after book. Its like having a fictitious family.

  John Banville

  Book, Crime Novels, Delightful

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• The great movie can be as free of being a record of the progress of the protagonist as is a dream.

  David Mamet

  Dream, Progress, Records

  David Mamet (1991). “On directing film”, Viking Pr

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• Make the audience wonder what's going on by putting them in the same position as the protagonist.

  David Mamet

  Wonder, Audience, Position

  David Mamet (1991). “On Directing Film”, Penguin Group USA

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• A stage play is basically a form of uber-schizophrenia. You split yourself into two minds - one being the protagonist and the other being the antagonist. The playwright also splits himself into two other minds: the mind of the writer and the mind of the audience.

  David Mamet

  Play, Two, Uber

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• I had a list of things that science fiction, particularly American science fiction, to me seemed to do with tedious regularity. One was to not have strong female protagonists. One was to envision the future, whatever it was, as America.

  William Gibson

  Strong, America, Lists

  Interview with Zack Handlen, www.avclub.com. September 7, 2010.

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• It may sound very strange, but I love the freedom that writing a novel gives me. It is an unhindered experience. If I come after a bad day, I can decide that my protagonist will die on page 100 of my novel in a 350-page story.

  Ashwin Sanghi

  Writing, Bad Day, Giving

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• Most traditional ghost stories feature rather hapless protagonists, who have nasty things happen to them.

  Jonathan Stroud

  Ghost Stories, Nasty, Happens

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• Crime is a very hard genre to feminise. If you have a female protagonist she is going to be looking after her mum when she gets older; she is going to be worried about her brother and sister; she will be making a living while bringing up kids.

  Denise Mina

  Brother, Kids, Female

  "Murder she wrote - and plenty of it: Denise Mina on her career". Interview with Peter Guttridge, www.theguardian.com. July 28, 2007.

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• In prose, leaps of logic can be made while the protagonist thinks about things and arrives at conclusions. Even with voiceover, there's no real way of having an inner voice without it taking over the entire story.

  Denise Mina

  Real, Thinking, Voice

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• Whether it's Mrs Dalloway's lost love or Thérèse Raquin's burgeoning horror, The Paying Guests reminds us of every great novel we've gasped or winced at, or loudly urged the protagonists through, and it does not relent. . . . The Paying Guests is the apotheosis of [Waters'] talent; at least for now. I have tried and failed to find a single negative thing to say about it. Her next will probably be even better. Until then, read it, Flaubert, Zola, and weep.

  Charlotte Mendelson

  Lost Love, Water, Next

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• A lot of crime fiction writing is also lazy. Personality is supposed to be shown by the protagonists taste in music, or were told that the hero looks like the young Cary Grant. Film is the medium these writers are looking for.

  Peter Temple

  Hero, Writing, Personality

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• American and Vietnamese characters alike leap to life through the voice and eyes of a tenyearold girl-a protagonist so strong, loving, and vivid I longed to hand her a wedge of freshly cut papaya.

  Mitali Perkins

  Girl, Strong, Character

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• The Hawk and the Dove is a wonderful idea for a book, wonderfully carried out. Nicholas Thompson has used illuminating new material to present each of his protagonists in a convincing, respectful, but unsparing way. Even more valuable, he has used the interactions and tensions between Paul Nitze and George Kennan to bring much of American 20th century foreign policy to life, with human richness ever present but with the big issues clear in all their complexity.

  James Fallows

  Book, Ideas, Issues

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• Wolf Boy is absolutely beguiling. Evan Kuhlman has boundless empathy for all his characters, and his wonderful protagonist Stephen is, in turn, boundlessly inventive. . . . This is an auspicious debut.

  Valerie Sayers

  Character, Boys, Empathy

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• When one hears the argument that marriage should be indissoluble for the sake of children, one cannot help wondering whether the protagonist is really such a firm friend of childhood.

  Suzanne La Follette

  Children, Childhood, Sake

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• When the machine of a human being is turned on, it seems to produce a protagonist, just as a television produces an image.

  Mohsin Hamid

  Machines, Television, Produce

  Mohsin Hamid (2015). “Discontent and its Civilizations: Dispatches from Lahore, New York, and London”, p.62, Penguin

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• My protagonists, male and female, are me.

  Madeleine L'Engle

  Males, Female

  Madeleine L'Engle (2016). “The Irrational Season”, p.18, Open Road Media

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• In my career, I've often played the protagonist or the hero of the movie, and there are so many rules inherent to that role. The audience needs to stay with you, identify with you and like you. When you play the bad guy, those rules go out the window. There's so much freedom there.

  Ryan Phillippe

  Hero, Play, Careers

  Source: collider.com

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• Free will is something that people struggle with so much, but it's very simple to me. Carl Jung said at the same moment you're a protagonist in your own life making choices, you also are the spear carrier, or the extra, in a much larger drama. You've got to live with these two opposite ideas at the same time.

  Wayne Dyer

  Drama, Struggle, Simple

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• The Hulk is the most difficult Marvel property because it's always about balance. Is he a monster? Is he a hero? Are you going to root for a protagonist who spends all his time trying to stop the reason you came to the movie from happening? It's always a dance

  Joss Whedon

  Hero, Roots, Balance

  Source: deadline.com

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• Employing women as my primary protagonists has allowed me to step outside of myself, to distance myself from my own personality, far more easily than were I to look at events from a masculine perspective.

  Tom Robbins

  Distance, Perspective, Personality

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