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Characterization Quotes

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Characterization Quotes

“But she knew herself. Her body longed to feel pain, to exact it, but her mind feared it too much to allow herself the freedom to. Besides, her knuckles were already blistering from the beating they’d been taking for the better part of an hour. Without the gloves she’d have shattered a hand by now. Wouldn’t that be just like her. To fear pain so and yet stumble into it at every opportunity.”

PainFearFear Of FailureSelf LoathingCharacterizationComplex CharactersEmotional TurmoilCharacter StudyPunching Bag
Book:The Paragon
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“Most of these stories are on the tragic side. But the reader must not suppose that the incidents I have narrated were of common occurrence. The vast majority of these people, government servants, planters, and traders, who spent their working lives in Malaya were ordinary people ordinarily satisfied with their station in life. They did the jobs they were paid to do more or less competently,. They were as happy with their wives as are most married couples. They led humdrum lives and did very much the same things every day. Sometimes by way of a change they got a little shooting; but at a rule, after they had done their day's work, they played tennis if there were people to play with, went to the club at sundown if there was a club in the vicinity, drank in moderation, and played bridge. They had their little tiffs, their little jealousies, their little flirtations, their little celebrations. They were good, decent, normal people. I respect, and even admire, such people, but they are not the sort of people I can write stories about. I write stories about people who have some singularity of character which suggests to me that they may be capable of behaving in such a way as to give me an idea that I can make use of, or about people who by some accident or another, accident of temperament, accident of environment, have been involved in unusual contingencies. But, I repeat, they are the exception.”

CharacterHuman NatureCharacterization
Book:Collected Short Stories: Volume 4
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“One of the commonest and most generally accepted delusions is that every man can be qualified in some particular way -- said to be kind, wicked, stupid, energetic, apathetic, and so on. People are not like that. We may say of a man that he is more often kind than cruel, more often wise than stupid, more often energetic than apathetic or vice versa; but it could never be true to say of one man that he is kind or wise, and of another that he is wicked or stupid. Yet we are always classifying mankind in this way. And it is wrong. Human beings are like rivers; the water is one and the same in all of them but every river is narrow in some places, flows swifter in others; here it is broad, there still, or clear, or cold, or muddy or warm. It is the same with men. Every man bears within him the germs of every human quality, and now manifests one, now another, and frequently is quite unlike himself, while still remaining the same man.”

HumansChangePersonalityAssumptionsSimplificationCharacterization
Book:Resurrection
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“I ran across an excerpt today (in English translation) of some dialogue/narration from the modern popular writer, Paulo Coelho in his book: Aleph.(Note: bracketed text is mine.)... 'I spoke to three scholars,' [the character says 'at last.'] ...two of them said that, after death, the [sic (misprint, fault of the publisher)] just go to Paradise. The third one, though, told me to consult some verses from the Koran. [end quote]' ...I can see that he's excited. [narrator]' ...Now I have many positive things to say about Coelho: He is respectable, inspiring as a man, a truth-seeker, and an appealing writer; but one should hesitate to call him a 'literary' writer based on this quote. A 'literary' author knows that a character's excitement should be 'shown' in his or her dialogue and not in the narrator's commentary on it. Advice for Coelho: Remove the 'I can see that he's excited' sentence and show his excitement in the phrasing of his quote.(Now, in defense of Coelho, I am firmly of the opinion, having myself written plenty of prose that is flawed, that a novelist should be forgiven for slipping here and there.)Lastly, it appears that a belief in reincarnation is of great interest to Mr. Coelho ... Just think! He is a man who has achieved, (as Leonard Cohen would call it), 'a remote human possibility.' He has won lots of fame and tons of money. And yet, how his preoccupation with reincarnation—none other than an interest in being born again as somebody else—suggests that he is not happy!”

LifeWritingInspirationTruthHappinessInspiringEducationInspirational LifeBirthFameInspirational AttitudeFortuneFaultsIslamEducationalHappyDialogueExcitementParadiseIslamicLife And DeathImperfectionInspiring QuotesPublishingReincarnationGrammarWriting AdviceCritiqueNovelsBorn AgainLiterature QuotesAuthorshipFamous AuthorsIslamic QuotesRomanLiterary CriticismHuman PotentialWriting CraftCraftsmanshipCharacterizationCraftRoman PayneWriting From The HeartNovelistNarrationHappiness Positive OutlookPaulo CoelhoPayneLiterary TheoryFame And FortuneAdvice For WritersKoranHumanenessSentence StructureCoelhoLeonard CohenAlephArt Of LiteraturePhrasingCohenWriting ArtWriting As A ProfessionCritique Of ModernityGrammaticalWriting And Art
Author:Roman Payne
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“Gold had many admirers, though Doha himself was not one of them. Too many allowed it to occupy the space inside their chests. He didn’t understand it. For a metal, it was pretty weak and unimpressive. And as currency, he’d only ever longed for enough. His father had worked his body broken so that they might have it. Doha did not think excess was worth his father’s misery. Still, as he beheld how the light reflected on the surface, he simply couldn’t help but be taken with its simple beauty.”

BeautyGoldSimple LifeCharacter DevelopmentLove Of MoneyCharacterizationMaking Ends Meet
Book:The Paragon
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“He’s whispering again. I’m finding it hard to hear, and we’re standing close together. What do you want to ask? ‘If Hen/ was the same as she is now, in every way, but was a bit less physically attractive in one significant way, do you think you would have married her?’ I’m caught off guard by the question, but I don’t want to show that I am, so I don’t hesitate with my answer. Of course, I say. I love Hen. Hen’s my wife. She’ll be with me forever. I’ve always loved he. I’ll always love her. ‘ I know that. I know. I don’t doubt you love her very much. That’s not really what I’m asking, though. Are you sure you would have married her? Committed to her forever? Think about it. Does her appearance not mean anything to you? Is that what you’re saying? That what she looks like is irrelevant?’ It’s such a blonde question. It seems out of line with everything else we talked about. I feel a trickle in sweat slide down my spine. I’m saying, to me, no matter what, she would still be Hen. ‘Would she, though? Would she still be the Hen you fell in love with? What about this: What if she looked exactly as she does right now, but she was a little less intelligent? Would she still be Hen?’ That’s just stupid. It’s a stupid question. Hen is Hen.”

PhilosophyChoicesMarriageCharacterizationChoosing A Lifemate
Book:Foe
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“Wilder's Wonka is, as in the book, the embellishment and excitement round the edges - his batty, barmy, nutty, screwy, dippy, dotty, daffy, goofy, beany, buggy, wacky, loony nature dazzling and drawing our attention but, narratively speaking, remaining decoration.”

ActingChocolateCharacterizationWilly WonkaChocolate FactoryCandy ManGene Wilder
Book:Inside Charlie's Chocolate Factory: The Complete Story of Willy Wonka, the Golden Ticket, and Roald Dahl's Most Famous Creation.
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“Hodge admired Wilder’s performance but didn't want to reproduce it - for practical as well as artistic reasons. ‘I'm working in a different medium,’ he says. ‘I really admire Gene Wilder's version, but his energy - that druggy, transcendental, gently enigmatic thing - is different from what I require to sing huge songs and fill a theatre full of children. There's a different engine powering a big West End musical.”

EnergyActingApproachMusicalCharactersCharacterizationWilly Wonka
Book:Inside Charlie's Chocolate Factory: The Complete Story of Willy Wonka, the Golden Ticket, and Roald Dahl's Most Famous Creation.
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“Saul is as different from Simon Wakefield as it's possible to get, I find myself thinking. And Edward Monkford is utterly different from both of them. It seems incredible that Emma could have had relationships with all three men. Where Simon's eager to please, but also touchy and insecure, and Edward's calm and super-confident, Saul is pushy and brash and loud. He also has a habit of saying 'Yeah?' aggressively at the end of his sentences, as if trying to force me to agree with him.”

RelationshipsPersonalityComplexCharacterizationJ P DelaneyThe Girl BeforeEmma MatthewsEdward Monkford
Book:The Girl Before
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“Now, to be sure, Mrs Varden thought, here is a perfect character. Here is a meek, righteous, thoroughgoing Christian, who, having mastered all these qualities, so difficult of attainment; who, having dropped a pinch of salt on the tails of all the cardinal virtues, and caught them everyone; makes light of their possession, and pants for more morality. For the good woman never doubted (as many good men and women never do), that this slighting kind of profession, this setting so little store by great matters, this seeming to say, ‘I am not proud, I am what you hear, but I consider myself no better than other people; let us change the subject, pray’—was perfectly genuine and true. He so contrived it, and said it in that way that it appeared to have been forced from him, and its effect was marvellous. Aware of the impression he had made—few men were quicker than he at such discoveries—Mr Chester followed up the blow by propounding certain virtuous maxims, somewhat vague and general in their nature, doubtless, and occasionally partaking of the character of truisms, worn a little out at elbow, but delivered in so charming a voice and with such uncommon serenity and peace of mind, that they answered as well as the best. Nor is this to be wondered at; for as hollow vessels produce a far more musical sound in falling than those which are substantial, so it will oftentimes be found that sentiments which have nothing in them make the loudest ringing in the world, and are the most relished.”

DeceptionHypocrisySarcasmCharacterizationTwo Faced
Book:Barnaby Rudge
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“Empathy isn’t just a byproduct of evolution; it’s humanity’s superpower. It enables us to form cohesive groups, collaborating in ways that make the whole greater than the sum of its parts. Without empathy and mutual understanding, civilizations as we know them wouldn’t exist.”

EmpathyStorytellingCharacter DevelopmentCharacterizationStory WritingEmpathy QuotesStorytelling QuotesEmpathy In Writing
Book:Trust Your Story: Master Storytelling and Build a Successful Creative Writing Career
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“If through no fault of his own the hero is crushed by a bulldozer in Act II, we are not impressed. Even though life is often like this—the absconding cashier on his way to Nicaragua is killed in a collision at the airport, the prominent statesman dies of a stroke in the midst of the negotiations he has spent years to bring about, the young lovers are drowned in a boating accident the day before their marriage—such events, the warp and woof of everyday life, seem irrelevant, meaningless. They are crude, undigested, unpurged bits of reality—to draw a metaphor from the late J. Edgar Hoover, they are “raw files.” But it is the function of great art to purge and give meaning to human suffering, and so we expect that if the hero is indeed crushed by a bulldozer in Act II there will be some reason for it, and not just some reason but a good one, one which makes sense in terms of the hero’s personality and action. In fact, we expect to be shown that he is in some way responsible for what happens to him.”

WritingPurposeFateMeaningCharacterizationPlotting
Book:The Oedipus Cycle: Oedipus Rex, Oedipus at Colonus, Antigone
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“In any friendship or partnership, there is always one that shines just a little bit brighter than the other. He doesn’t mean to, that’s just who he is. And I love him for it. I’ve learned this the hard way, that you can either resent a star for shining brighter, or sit back and enjoy the show.”

FriendshipFriendsShine Your LightCharacterizationFemale FriendshipIntrovert Or ExtrovertComplex CharactersFemale FriendsShine BrighterIntrovert Extrovert
Book:The Paragon
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“One thing about beginning writers is that they don't really always know their own strengths and weaknesses - you might think you're bad at characterization, but that might really be because of some issue you're having with another element, which is making it hard for you to express character in a convincing way.”

ThinkingKnowsWayHardCharacterMightIssuesOne ThingElementsWeaknessConvincingStrength And WeaknessCharacterizationBeginning Writers
Author:Jeff VanderMeer
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“With Batman&Robin, the fourth entry in the recent Batman movie series, the profitable franchise appears poised to take a nosedive. This film, which places yet another actor in the batsuit, has all the necessary hallmarks of a sorry sequel - pointless, plodding plotting; asinine action; clueless, comatose characterization; and dumb dialogue. Batman&Robin moves at a dizzying pace, yet goes absolutely nowhere.”

ActionFilmMovingActorsSeriesSorryDialogueDumbPaceFourthProfitablePointlessEntrySequelsRobinsHallmarkCluelessCharacterizationBatman MovieComatose
Author:James Berardinelli
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“It is the curse of minorities in this power-worshipping world that either from fear or from an uncertain policy of expedience they distrust their own standards and hesitate to give voice to their deeper convictions, submitting supinely to estimates and characterizations of themselves as handed down by a not unprejudiced dominant majority.”

WorldGivingVoicePolicyStandardsPrejudiceMajorityConvictionDeeperDiscriminationOppressionCurseMinoritiesUncertainDominantDistrustCharacterizationExpedience
Book:A Voice from the South
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“The best characterization is provided by the product of this religious education, the Jew himself. His life is only of this world, and his spirit is inwardly as alien to true Christianity as his nature two thousand years previous was to the great founder of the new doctrine.”

WorldYearsTwoLife IsSpiritReligiousChristianityThis WorldProductsThousandJewDoctrineAliensFoundersThousand YearsMein KampfCharacterizationReligious ViewsReligious EducationTrue Christianity
Book:Mein Kampf
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“UG [universal grammar] may be regarded as a characterization of the genetically determined language faculty. One may think of thisfaculty as a 'language acquisition device,' an innate component of the human mind that yields a particular language through interaction with present experience, a device that converts experience into a system of knowledge attained: knowledge of one or another language.”

ThinkingMindHumansMayLanguageParticularUniversalDeterminedDevicesFacultyYieldHuman MindInteractionComponentsGrammarInnateAcquisitionCharacterizationLanguage Acquisition
Author:Noam Chomsky
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