Home / Topics / Character Quotes

Character Quotes

Browse 17579 quotes about Character.

Character Quotes

“I just want to work with good filmmakers and do good projects that mean something to me and play interesting characters. That's really it.”

Want Mean Play Character Interesting Projects Filmmaker Interesting Characters

Author:Dylan O'Brien

“The job of an actor is the same in all of them, really. I mean, you're just creating a character that you hope people will believe, so it doesn't make that much of a difference really.”

People Believe Mean Character Jobs Actors Differences Creating

Author:Rosamund Pike

“Being an author means, almost by definition, that you make up characters and then complicate their lives. That's it, really. You make up characters and give them problem after problem after problem.”

Giving Writing Mean Character Problem Definitions

Author:Maureen Johnson

“Imagination, it turns out, is a great deal like reporting in your own head. Here is a paradox of fiction-writing. You are crafting something from nothing, which means, in one sense, that none of it is true. Yet in the writing, and perhaps in the reading, some of a character's actions or lines are truer than others.”

Writing Mean Character Action Turns Reading Imagination Lines Deals Fiction Paradox Fiction Writing

Author:Amy Waldman

“I think any writer coming on to Batman should at least attempt to do their own definitive version. What it means to them. Whatever they think that symbol or character can say.”

Thinking Should Mean Character Versions Symbols

Author:Grant Morrison

“I don't think plot as a plot means much today. I'd say that everybody has seen every plot twenty times. What they haven't seen is characters and their relation to one another. I don't worry much about plot anymore.”

Thinking Mean Character Today Worry Havens Relation Twenties Plot

Book:Howard Hawks: Interviews

Source: Howard Hawks: Interviews

“If there's anything Trollope novels always take seriously, it is money - how it flows from one character to another, how it is managed, who has it, who deserves it, and what it means to a character, male or female.”

Ifs Mean Character Novel Deserve Female Flow Males

Author:Jane Smiley

“Washing one's hands of the conflict between the powerful and the powerless means to side with the powerful, not to be neutral.”

Source: The Politics of Education: Culture, Power, and Liberation

“I have to phrase this perfectly: I'm just not convinced that the attention we give to creating what we think of as a character isn't actually quite often the means by which an actor overcomes his own terror of standing there onstage and creating a mask to hide behind.”

Thinking Giving Mean Character Actors Behinds Attention Creating Standing Overcoming Terror Convinced Phrases Mask Standing There

Author:Stephen Dillane

“I love it when characters surprise you, just like real people. When I write a scene I just try to make the characters behave in a way that feels natural to them. Sometimes that means they make a left turn and do something unexpected. Those are always the best scenes in my opinion.”

People Way Feels Writing Trying Mean Real Sometimes Character Turns Left Natural Opinion Scene Surprise Behave Unexpected Something Unexpected

Author:Brad Falchuk

“Character may almost be called the most effective means of persuasion.”

May Mean Character Philosophical Persuasion

Book:Rhetoric

Source: Rhetoric

“Angels can help us understand what intuition means in a personal way. Angels are actually in charge of a large part of our intuitive self. Viewing intuition from the perspective of angel consciousness, we can say that intuition is our way of tapping into a higher power for guidance and awareness.”

Way Mean Self Character Helping Spirituality Consciousness Awareness Perspective Higher Angel Intuition Guidance Intuitive Higher Power Tapping

Author:Terry Taylor

“Regard it as just as desirable to build a chicken house as to build a cathedral. The size of the project means little in art, beyond the money matter. It is the quality of the character that really counts.”

Mean Littles Art Matter Character House Quality Advice Projects Art Is Regard Size Chickens Desirable Cathedrals Money Matters

Book:Frank Lloyd Wright Collected Writings: 1930-1932

Source: Frank Lloyd Wright Collected Writings: 1930-1932

“One way of getting along with people is the ability to give in. Strength of character means the ability to give in to others from motives of love, kindness, and humility, and to do so gracefully, when no sin is involved. It also means the ability to stand on principle, and not to give in, when sin is involved.”

People Way Giving Mean Character Sin Ability Principles Kindness Humility Involved One Way Motive Strength Of Character Getting Along

Author:Lawrence G. Lovasik

“I have always been in favor of a healthy Americanization, but that does not mean a complete disavowal of our German heritage. It means that our character should take on the best of that which is American, and combine it with the best of that which is German. By doing this, we can best serve the American people and their civilization.”

People Should Mean Doe Character Civilization Healthy Favors Heritage

Author:Carl Schurz

“When an acting teacher tells a student 'that wasn't honest work' or 'that didn't seem real,' what does this mean? In life, we are rarely 'truthful' or 'honest' or 'real'. And characters in plays are almost never 'truthful' or 'honest' or 'real'. What exactly do teachers even mean by these words? A more useful question is: What is the story the actor was telling in their work? An actor is always telling a story. We all are telling stories, all the time. Story: that is what it is all about.”

Mean Doe Real Play Character Stories Seems Actors Acting Teacher Honest Students Truthful Telling Stories Acting Teachers Honest Work

Author:Stella Adler

“I think you always need to be able to relate to your characters, but that doesn't necessarily mean...you have to understand why they do what they do, but you don't actually have to be like that yourself.”

Thinking Needs Mean Character Able Relate

Author:Natalie Portman

“It is a kind and wise arrangement of Providence that weaves our sorrows into the elements of character and that all the disappointments, and conflicts, and afflictions of life may, if rightly used, become the means of improvement, and create in us the sinews of strength.... the dross is left in the crucible, the baser metals are transmuted, and the character is enriched with gold.”

Ifs Kind May Mean Character Used Left Wise Sorrow Conflict Elements Gold Disappointment Improvement Metals Providence Arrangements Affliction Crucible Dross

Author:William Morley Punshon

“Look at Andrew Roe's The Miracle Girl from one angle and you'll see an incisive and insightful critique of America at the millennium and today, investigating where we put our faith and why. The greatest of Roe's achievements in this captivating debut is a memorable feat of intense empathy. Roe inhabits characters who are desperate to believe and reveals to us their needs and wounds and hopes, and he does so with kindness, generosity, and wisdom. This is a novel about what it means to be human, to seek connection and hope and maybe even transcendence in the world around us.”

“I believe a good writer can write a good book with any sort of character, in any sort of setting, but I prefer to write about the outsider. It might just be because I've been one (or perceived myself to be one) for so much of my life. But the simple fact of being marginalized immediately brings conflict to a story before the narrative even begins, and that's gold for a writer because it means that your character already has depth before events begin to unfold.”

Writing Believe Mean Book Character Facts Stories Might I Believe Simple Events Conflict Gold Depth Setting Settings Narrative Outsiders Good Book Good Writers Marginalized

Author:Charles de Lint

“I know it's boring to say this but I always start with the script. I mean if it's well written and it's a character that I haven't necessarily played before.”

Ifs Knows Wells Mean Character Written Havens Scripts Boring Well Written

Author:Billy Bob Thornton

“The idea of Cable as a man out to protect his daughter by any means necessary gives the character an emotional heft and underlines everything he does. It's richly fulfilling.”

Men Giving Mean Doe Ideas Character Emotional Protect Daughter Fulfilling Cables

Author:Tom Brevoort

“At whatever time highly skilled physicians shall have developed the healing of illnesses by means of foods, and shall make provision for simple foods, and shall prohibit humankind from living as slaves to their lustful appetites, it is certain that the incidence of chronic and diversified illnesses will abate, and the general health of all mankind will be much improved. This is destined to come about. In the same way, in the character, the conduct and the manners of men, universal modifications will be made.”

Men Way Mean Made Character Certain Simple Healing Mankind Universal Slave Illness Manners Appetite Humankind Physicians Destined Provision Modification Lustful Incidence Simple Food

Author:Abdu'l-Bahá

“What we are accustomed to decry as great social evils, will, for the most part, be found to be only the out-growth of our own perverted life; and though we may endeavor to cut them down and extirpate them by means of law, they will only spring up again with fresh luxuriance in some other form, unless the conditions of human life and character are radically improved.”

Humans May Mean Character Form Law Evil Found Social Growth Cutting Conditions Spring Down And Human Life Endeavor Accustomed Social Evils

Book:Self-help

Source: Self-help

“I don't think I could stay interested for a couple of months in a character of mean motivation.”

Thinking Mean Character Motivation Months Couple

Author:Gregory Peck

“These types of films that are psychologically sort of dark at times, I find extremely exciting to do because there's always something to think about. There's nothing more boring than to show up on set and say a line and know that your character means exactly what they say. It's interesting to have an unreliable narrator in a film and that's what both of those films have been.”

Thinking Knows Mean Has Beens Character Shows Film Lines Dark Interesting Type Exciting Boring Unreliable Narrators

Author:Leonardo DiCaprio

“To live in a great idea means to treat the impossible as though it were possible. It is just the same with a strong character; and when an idea and a character meet, things arise which fill the world with wonder for thousands of years.”

World Years Mean Ideas Character Strong Wonder Impossible Treats Arise Great Idea Strong Character

Book:Delphi Works of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (Illustrated)

Source: Delphi Works of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (Illustrated)

“Of means of persuading by speaking there are three species: some consist in the character of the speaker; others in the disposing the hearer a certain way; others in the thing itself which is said, by reason of its proving, or appearing to prove the point.”

Way Mean Said Reason Character Certain Three Prove Species Speakers Appearing Persuading

Book:Aristotle's Treatise on Rhetoric

Source: Aristotle's Treatise on Rhetoric

“By the study of their biographies, we receive each man as a guest into our minds, and we seem to understand their character as the result of a personal acquaintance, because we have obtained from their acts the best and most important means of forming an opinion about them. "What greater pleasure could'st thou gain than this?" What more valuable for the elevation of our own character?”

Men Mind Mean Important Character Seems Pleasure Results Opinion Study Greater Gains Valuable Guests Biographies Acquaintance Elevation

Book:Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans: Complete

Source: Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans: Complete

“Just because you are a character doesn't mean you have character.”

Mean Character Fiction Pulp

Book:Pulp Fiction

Source: Pulp Fiction

“I don't buy into that pressure to be glamorous all the time. It's impossible, I mean, you get a pimple in the morning, you wake up with bags under your eyes, you see if you can use it in your work, maybe incorporate it into your character.”

Ifs Mean Character Use Eye Morning Impossible Wake Up Pressure Bags Glamorous Pimples

Author:Halle Berry

“The habit of seen the public rule, is gradually accustoming the American mind to an interference with private rights that is slowly undermining the individuality of the national character. There is getting to be so much public right, that private right is overshadowed and lost. A danger exists that the ends of liberty will be forgotten altogether in the means.”

Mind Mean Ends Character Lost Liberty Rights Danger Habit Forgotten Individuality Interference Undermining

Author:James F. Cooper

“I don't particularly care about having [my characters] talk realistically, that doesn't mean very much to me. Actually, a lot of people speak more articulately than some critics think, but before the 20th century it really didn't occur to many writers that their language had to be the language of everyday speech. When Wordsworth first considered that in poetry, it was considered very much of a shocker. And although I'm delighted to have things in ordinary speech, it's not what I'm trying to perform myself at all: I want my characters to get their ideas across, and I want them to be articulate.”

People Thinking Want Writing Trying Firsts Mean Ideas Character Care Speak Language Century Speech Ordinary Critics Everyday 20th Century Delighted Wordsworth

Author:Louis Auchincloss

“I see myself as a novelist, period. I mean, the material I work with is what is classified as science fiction and fantasy, and I really don't think about these things when I'm writing. I'm just thinking about telling a story and developing my characters.”

Thinking Writing Mean Character Stories Fiction Fantasy Materials Periods Science Fiction Developing Novelists Science Fiction And Fantasy

Author:Roger Zelazny

“Invariably will you find perseverance exemplified as the radical principle in every truly great character. It facilitates, perfects, and consolidates the execution of the plan conceived, and renders profitable its results when attained. By continuing to advance steadily in the same way, light constantly increases, obstacles disappear, efficient habits are confirmed, experience is acquired, the use of the best means is reduced to easy action, and success becomes more sure.”

Source: Proverbs for the people: or, Illustrations of practical godliness drawn from the Book of wisdom

“Someone from the Internet Writing Workshop sent me a link to the Gender Genie, where you paste in a section of text and it uses an algorithm to detect whether the author is male or female. Or, if you're an author, you can tell whether you're really nailing your opposite-sex characters. I mean, nailing their dialog.”

Ifs Writing Mean Character Use Sex Internet Female Opposites Males Gender Links Sections Workshops Algorithms Genies Writing Workshop

Author:Max Barry

“Speculative Philosophy is the endeavour to frame a coherent, logical, necessary system of general ideas in terms of which every element of our experience can be interpreted. By this notion of 'interpretation' I mean that everything of which we are conscious, as enjoyed, perceived, willed, or thought, shall have the character of a particular instance of the general scheme.”

Mean Ideas Philosophy Character Term Particular Elements Conscious Notion Instance Enjoyed Logical Interpretation Schemes Endeavour

Author:Charles Hartshorne

“Character, in great and little things, means carrying through what you feel able to do.”

Feels Mean Littles Character Able Action Success Acting Encouragement Little Things

Author:Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

“Freedom and diversity guard each other, and if a country could form the whole of one's character, Napoleon III and Victor Hugo would have been the same person... if national identity means anything, it means something that comes with you wherever you go, and stays with you no matter how long you stay away.”

Ifs Mean Persons Long Has Beens Country Matter Whole Character Form Destiny Identity Diversity National Identity

Author:Clive James

“I've become really aware of all the subtle things you can communicate through the art and how you're presenting a character, particularly someone like Wonder Woman, who means so much to so many people.”

People Mean Art Book Character Wonder Communicate Comic Subtle Comic Book Presenting Wonder Woman

Author:Cliff Chiang

“I think bringing depth to characters means really needing to find out who this girl is, what is she passionate about, what makes her tick, what gets her going in life. So I did a lot of backstory for who she was and sometimes it comes across screen and sometimes it doesn't. You never know, because you're not the director, but you can only do your work and hope that it somehow subtly is infiltrated in that. But I think the characters I've played for the most part have depth, just not in the way that you think they do.”

Thinking Knows Way Mean Sometimes Character Girl Directors Depth Passionate Screens Tick This Girl

Author:Amy Smart

“Jen came first, and then they wanted to cast somebody that would... Kevin liked the idea of having a kind of The Ghost of That Character kind of haunt the movie in a way throughout, by having Raquel look so much like her. And also, it was sort of serendipity. I mean, she was also the best actress. I mean, as you can see Raquel has a pretty appealing, engaging kind of precocious, sparkly quality that's... it was just luck really that she happened to the film.”

Way Firsts Looks Kind Mean Ideas Character Wanted Film Quality Happened Luck Casts Actresses Ghost Engaging Like Her Serendipity Kevin Precocious

Author:Ben Affleck

“There are interactions with characters within the game which I think are pretty neatly done considering the limitations that you have to work with. I mean, a computer can't really generate a character that talks back and forth with you successfully.”

Thinking Mean Done Character Literature Games Computer Limitation Interaction Considering Back And Forth

Author:Fred Saberhagen

“Every single movie that I've ever done has affected my life; I always feel more changed by a character than I affect them or change them, always. I mean, that's just kind of the way it is.”

Way Feels Kind Mean Done Character Changed Affected

Author:Joaquin Phoenix

“Just because you have superpowers, that doesn't mean your love life would be perfect. I don't think superpowers automatically means there won't be any personality problems, family problems or even money problems. I just tried to write characters who are human beings who also have superpowers.”

Thinking Writing Humans Mean Character Problem Would Be Human Beings Perfect Personality Love Life Superpower Family Problems Money Problem

Author:Stan Lee

“It's weird. I feel like people assume if a character is very different than you, that means it's difficult to get into their head or into their skin.”

People Ifs Feels Mean Different Character Difficult Skins Assuming

Author:Katherine Waterston

“He who meanly admires a mean thing is a snob--perhaps that is a safe definition of the character.”

Mean Character Safe Definitions Admire Snob

Author:William Makepeace Thackeray

“Duke Chartres used to boast that no man could have less real value for character than himself, yet he would gladly give twenty thousand pounds for a good one, because he could immediately make double that sum by means of it.”

Men Giving Mean Real Character Used Values Thousand Twenties Pounds Boast Dukes Real Value

Book:Lacon: Or, Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think

Source: Lacon: Or, Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think

“The whole genius of an author consists in describing well, and delineating character well. Homer, Plato, Virgil, Horace only excel other writers by their expressions and images; we must indicate what is true if we mean to write naturally, forcibly and delicately.”

Ifs Writing Wells Mean Whole Character Expression Genius Plato Describing

Author:Jean de la Bruyere

“There are, then, these three means of effecting persuasion. The man who is to be in command of them must, it is clear, be able (1) to reason logically, (2) to understand human character and goodness in their various forms, and (3) to understand the emotions--that is, to name them and describe them, to know their causes and the way in which they are excited.”

Source: The Modern Library Collection of Greek and Roman Philosophy 3-Book Bundle: Meditations; Selected Dialogues of Plato; The Basic Works of Aristotle