“It's something that people relate to - and I hope my kid doesn't relate to - but there's a level of believability in playing complex characters. You know, Christopher Walken has done some hilarious comedies, De Niro. There's great room for complexity and darkness to do well in comedies.” PeopleKnowsWellsDoneCharacterKidsLevelsRoomsDarknessComedyComplexesRelateComplexityDe NiroComplex CharactersBelievability Author:Jeremy Sisto
“Aladdin' was probably my favorite Disney animation when I was a kid. The animation was great and Robin Williams was unbelievable as the Genie. 'Aladdin' was an amazing adventure and the lead character was a hero for guys, which I loved. It wasn't a princess or a girl beating the odds; it was a street rat. That seemed really cool to me.” CharacterKidsGuyGirlStreetsAdventureHeroMy FavoritePrincessOddsRatsUnbelievableAnimationReally CoolRobinsGeniesLead CharactersDisney Animation Author:Zachary Levi
“I'm a huge comic book collector. When I was a kid, I had both Marvel and DC. I was my own librarian. I made card files. I had origin stories of all the characters, and cross-referenced when they appeared in other comic books. I was full on.” MadeBookCharacterStoriesKidsMy OwnHugeCrossesCardsComicComic BookFilesLibrarianCollectors Author:James Mangold
“Most of the time when I receive a script, it says something like 'Rosenberg is the fat, slovenly Mayor, who doesn't want the kids to use the Skateboard Park,' or 'Stein is a pompous, rotund attorney, imposing to all.' It would be so freeing to get a script where my character is simply described as 'A Man.'” MenWantCharacterUseWould BeKidsScriptsFatsParksAttorneyMayorsImposingPompous Author:Fred Melamed
“Kids often ask me if characters are real or made up - and I always tell them, 'I hope they're real but I made them up.'” IfsMadeRealCharacterKidsAsksAsk Me Author:Katherine Paterson
“I've always believed since I was a kid that God was gonna allow me to play professional football, to use it as a platform to proclaim and live out the name of Jesus. And, you know, that's the most exciting part about my life because God has done things in me to change my character to benefit the kingdom.” KnowsDonePlayCharacterUseKidsJesusNamesFootballBenefitsExcitingKingdomsPlatformsAlways Believe Author:Reggie White
“I think everyone has some sort of connection to Gatsby as a character... he's created himself according to his own emotions and dreams and lifted himself by his bootstraps from a poor kid in the Midwest and created this image that is The Great Gatsby and it's a truly American story in that regard.” ThinkingCharacterStoriesDreamKidsPoorEmotionConnectionsRegardMidwestBootstraps Author:Leonardo DiCaprio
“I think that people are going to find more interest in the human condition, especially with them being weaned on so much reality television. They want character driven stuff along with real violence. Cage fighting is very popular with the kids right now. They see and know what one punch can do to someone's face. You can't give someone five hundred punches in a film anymore.” PeopleThinkingKnowsWantGivingHumansRealCharacterRealityKidsFilmFacesFightingStuffInterestCan DoFiveViolenceConditionsTelevisionRight NowHundredDrivenHuman ConditionCagesVery PopularReality Television Author:Dolph Lundgren
“I usually make up stories for my kids.I like to tell them stories and make up any kind of crazy to involve them in characters. The kind of fairytales I don't like are the ones with happy endings, where there's just good and evil and things are perfect. I think when there's a good story for children it has a moral tale, so that's what I try to teach my kids.” ThinkingTryingKindChildrenCharacterStoriesKidsEvilPerfectMoralTeachCrazyTalesGood And EvilHappy EndingsGood StoryFairytale Author:Angelina Jolie
“Attention spans are changing. It's very noticeable. I am very aware that the kind of books I read in my childhood kids now won't be able to read. I was reading Kipling and PG Wodehouse and Shakespeare at the age of 11. The kind of description and detail I read I would not put in my books. I don't know how much you can fight that because you want children to read. So I pack in excitement and plot and illustrations and have a cliffhanger every chapter. Charles Dickens was doing cliffhangers way back when. But even with all the excitement you have to make children care about the characters.” KnowsWayWantKindChildrenBookCharacterCareKidsAgeAbleFightingReadingAttentionKnow HowChildhoodDetailsExcitementDescriptionPlotChaptersPacksBack WhenIllustrationDickensAttention SpanChild CareCliffhangerKiplingWay Back When Author:Cressida Cowell
“A piece of drapery is like a necktie, hot stuff to paint, and one of the easiest things for a painter to kid himself into thinking he can do. Don't be fooled by the color. Go after the shape and character. Hew the forms together with colored tones.” ThinkingCharacterKidsTogetherFormStuffCan DoPiecesColorShapesHotPaintPainterToneFooledNeckties Author:John French Sloan
“Almost everyone working in mainstream comics started off as a starry-eyed kid reading and loving comics. We're all fans, and that's great. But when we start working on company-owned comics professionally, we have to think like storytellers instead of fans. Editors aren't looking to hire the biggest fans of the characters. They're looking to hire the best creators with the best ideas.” ThinkingBookIdeasCharacterKidsReadingCompanyFansCreatorComicEditorsMainstreamComic BookStorytellerReading For KidsBiggest Fan Author:Greg Pak
“This character feels so much like my brother. He has two children. He has a wife. He works with me. He chooses to stay in New Hampshire because he wants his kids to grow up in the school they started with. He doesn't want them to lose friends. He is his family's hero.” WantFeelsChildrenTwoCharacterKidsSchoolGrowsLosesGrowing UpWifeBrotherHeroMy BrotherHampshireNew Hampshire Author:Adam Sandler
“I think that by now, in the very beginning when I first joined the show, General Landry was like a new kid in school. I was coming into a situation I didn't really know much about, and now, after a couple of years, the character's kind of mellowed and gotten comfortable working at the command center and very comfortable with his troops. What they always do with these shows is they always leave them open-ended. The SG-1 franchise has been so successful for the network, that they always want to keep it open, an option to do it again in some way, whether that's a movie or a series, or whatever.” ThinkingKnowsWayWantYearsFirstsKindHas BeensCharacterShowsKidsSchoolSituationSuccessfulCoupleComfortableSeriesCommandTroops Author:Beau Bridges
“While it is challenging working with a kid, because they're so of the moment all the time. My acting style is to try to take something from my life that the character can relate to and that I can relate the character to.” TryingI CanMomentsCharacterKidsChallengesActingStyleRelate Author:Kyra Sedgwick
“I'd like to be the John Wayne of the '90s. Not in terms of being the macho guy, but as a solid male leading character. Making an action-adventure comedy that kids can see with their families is a natural extension of what I did in wrestling.” CharacterKidsActionGuyTermNaturalComedyAdventureMalesWrestlingExtensionsWayneMacho Author:Hulk Hogan
“Fans believe they have a relationship with you, either through your TV character or, more reasonably, through the tweets you may have exchanged. In a way, you have gotten to know them. You learn about people's kids, families, pets.” PeopleKnowsWayBelieveMayCharacterKidsFansTvsPetTweetFamily Pets Author:Gina Bellman
“All I liked to do when I was a kid was draw. My childhood was like my adult life: drawing pictures with my brother, putting the comics up on the glass window, and tracing the characters onto tracing paper or drawing paper and then coloring them. That and making things was all we ever did.” CharacterKidsChildhoodBrotherPaperDrawsAdultsWindowGlassesDrawingMy BrotherTracingDrawing Pictures Author:Maurice Sendak
“I make up the characters in my books, but of course my consciousness is filled with every child I've ever known, including my two grandchildren, my own kids (I had four) and especially myself as a child, because that person still lives inside me, too.” ChildrenPersonsStillsTwoBookCharacterKidsCoursesMy OwnConsciousnessKnownFourFilledIncludingGrandchildrenStill Life Author:Lois Lowry
“Take a bunch of little kids to the beach and they all make art. Adults are too stupid to call it art, but it is art. They'll use their imaginations, make drama, make up characters, make pictures in the sand, they'll make up songs that no one's ever heard before. All kids, I think, are creative, but they get it pounded out of them in school.” ThinkingLittlesArtCharacterUseKidsSchoolSongImaginationCreativeHeardStupidDramaAdultsBunchBeachSandLittle Kid Author:Buffy Sainte-Marie
“Back in high school, I wrote a novel about a character named Bart Simpson. I thought it was a very unusual name for a kid at the time. I had this idea of an angry father yelling "Bart," and Bart sounds kind of like bark - like a barking dog.” KindIdeasCharacterKidsSchoolFatherNamesSoundNovelDogHigh SchoolAngryUnusualBarkYellingBarking DogsUnusual NamesBart Simpson Author:Matt Groening
“As a parent, you have to figure out how to shape your kid's character. You want to have human beings who learn about good character. You have to be able to see your child with clarity, see the good side and the bad side of them, and work on the bad side and make them better so they fulfill their potential.” WantHumansChildrenCharacterKidsAbleParentSidesHuman BeingsFiguresShapesOur ChildrenClarityYour ChildrenGood Character Author:Joan Cusack
“My first job now is as a mother, everything else is secondary. My kids understand that I am an actress, and they are always so surprised to hear my voice on a cartoon character, or see my face on a video box. If it ever gets to be too much though, the career and the kids, I will simply set the career aside.” IfsFirstsCharacterKidsJobsFacesMotherVoiceCareersToo MuchBoxesActressesVideoCartoonCartoon Character Author:Joan Cusack
“Carol Burnett probably had the biggest influence on me as kid. Although I was very young and watched her a lot in reruns, I was mesmerized by the way she transformed, by her physical comedy and the rolling laughter from the live studio audience. I loved her most as Scarlett O'Hara and her well known Cleaning Lady character.” WayWellsCharacterKidsYoungKnownAudienceComedyInfluenceLaughterStudiosTransformedRollingWell KnownCleaningCarolsRerunsMesmerizedPhysical ComedyScarlett O Hara Author:Christine Lakin
“The [character] that I was able to crawl into the most was Lilo from Lilo & Stitch. This was sort of a cartoony-looking girl, but her problems were completely real. Her funky world that she createdI mean, you know kids like that. It was very honest and genuine and I wanted to do an honest job, so I thought about the character a lot before I animated it. I really got into the character, where [I] almost felt that pain that she had. The loss of the parents - you need to feel all that. That was a big learning experience for me.” KnowsWorldNeedsFeelsMeanRealCharacterProblemBigsKidsAbleWantedPainJobsGirlFeltParentLossHonestGenuineAnimatedLearning ExperienceStitchesFunky Author:Andreas Deja