Protagonists Quotes - Page 8

• I always felt a little worm inside me: 'Now you need to write a novel with a woman protagonist.

  Carlos Fuentes

  Writing, Needs, Littles

  "The Latin master" by Maya Jaggi, www.theguardian.com. May 4, 2001.

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• We "chicks" have munched our popcorn while romantic comedies became just comedies, and then each female protagonist got recast for Mathew McConaughey or Seth Rogan.

  Emma McLaughlin

  Female, Popcorn, Comedy

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• I believe young children in particular enjoy witnessing the survival of youthful protagonists against terrible odds. I think it's gratifying to the reader when you give young characters that kind of agency.

  Robert Paul Weston

  Children, Believe, Character

  Source: www.yabookshelf.com

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• The definition of horror is pretty broad. What causes us "horror" is actually a many splendored thing (laughs). It can be hard to make horror accessible, and that's what I think Silence of the Lambs did so brilliantly - it was an accessible horror story, the villain was a monster, and the protagonist was pure of heart and upstanding so it had all of these great iconographic elements of classic storytelling. It was perceived less as a horror movie than an effective thriller, but make no mistake, it was a horror movie and was sort of sneaky that way.

  Bryan Fuller

  Mistake, Heart, Thinking

  Source: www.huffingtonpost.com

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• As such, anything is always possible, even if your protagonist is a plumber. But it's the possibility, the limitless possibilities, of any fake life, that make writing about it so challenging.

  Heidi Julavits

  Writing, Fake, Challenges

  "The Sunday Rumpus Interview: Heidi Julavits". Interview with Angela Stubbs, therumpus.net. October 14, 2012.

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• Since I hold no judgments against my characters, no matter how heinous they might seem, I present them as real people with their own moral centers. We might feel those moral centers are mis-calibrated, but they are there and are the rudders that propel them. This makes reading my work a visceral roller coaster, 'cause the reader must embark on the journey of the protagonist equipped only with his or her own moral center.

  Chris Abani

  Real, Reading, Character

  RUMPUS INTERVIEW with Peter Orner, therumpus.net. February 10, 2014.

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• Though the inspiration for my songs almost always comes from things that are happening around me, I am definitely not always the protagonist in the songs.

  Thalia Zedek

  Song, Inspiration, Happenings

  Source: thequietus.com

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• I do think that I have a more flexible view of the interactions between people, and between human and non-human protagonists, humans and their landscapes.

  Karen Russell

  Thinking, Views, People

  Source: www.guernicamag.com

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• Speaking generally, I think it's useful to acknowledge explicitly the power imbalance between a journalist and the protagonists in a story about poor people, even to make that imbalance part of the story - and to redress it, narratively, where you can.

  William Finnegan

  Thinking, People, Stories

  Source: www.guernicamag.com

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• I learned another thing, which is that just because someone is eating the ashes of your protagonist doesn't mean you stop telling the story.

  Miriam Toews

  Mean, Ashes, Stories

  Miriam Toews (2014). “All My Puny Sorrows”, p.173, Faber & Faber

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• When I wrote the first [Bond novel] in 1953, I wanted Bond to be an extremely dull, uninteresting man to whom things happened... when I was casting around for a name for my protagonist I thought by God, [James Bond] is the dullest name I ever heard.

  Ian Fleming

  Men, Names, Dull

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• As Jane Austen might have put it: It is a truth universally acknowledged that young protagonists in search of adventure must ditch their parents.

  Philip Pullman

  Writing, Adventure, Parent

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• A conventional ‘success’ story is one where, with each next, the protagonist has more money, more respect, and more possessions. I’d like to suggest an alternative ‘success’ story – one where, with each next, the protagonist is closer to finding that spot where he’s no longer held back by his heart, and he explodes with talent, and his character blossoms, and the gift he has to offer the world is apparent.

  Po Bronson

  Heart, Character, Alternatives

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• I'm drawn to characters who bear similarities to the protagonists in myths and legends. (...)

  Alan Lee

  Character, Legends, Bears

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• If the point of life is the same as the point of a story, the point of life is character transformation. If I got any comfort as I set out on my first story, it was that in nearly every story, the protagonist is transformed. He's a jerk at the beginning and nice at the end, or a coward at the beginning and brave at the end. If the character doesn't change, the story hasn't happened yet. And if story is derived from real life, if story is just condensed version of life then life itself may be designed to change us so that we evolve from one kind of person to another.

  Donald Miller

  Real, Nice, Character

  Donald Miller (2009). “A Million Miles in a Thousand Years: What I Learned While Editing My Life”, p.68, Thomas Nelson Inc

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• The sense of tragedy - according to Aristotle - comes, ironically enough, not from the protagonist's weak points but from his good qualities. Do you know what I'm getting at? People are drawn deeper into tragedy not by their defects but by their virtues. ... [But] we accept irony through a device called metaphor. And through that we grow and become deeper human beings.

  Haruki Murakami

  People, Tragedy, Quality

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• A criminal trial is like a Russian novel: it starts with exasperating slowness as the characters are introduced to a jury, then there are complications in the form of minor witnesses, the protagonist finally appears and contradictions arise to produce drama, and finally as both jury and spectators grow weary and confused the pace quickens, reaching its climax in passionate final argument.

  Clifford Irving

  Drama, Confused, Character

  "Biography/ Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

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