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Speak Quotes

“What I look for in any character, good or bad, is whether I can hear him speak. If I can imagine him that clearly, then I can write about him.”

Ifs Writing Looks I Can Character Speak Imagine

Author:Thomas Perry

“I'm sort of a reverse Method actor. In my personal life, I become my characters. After 'One Tree Hill', I started dressing in Converse and ripped jeans and hoodies. On 'Awkward', it manifests in how I speak.”

Character Actors Speak Tree Method Hills Awkward Reverse Personal Life Jeans Dressings Ripped Converses Tree Hill Hoodies Ripped Jeans

Author:Ashley Rickards

“When I started formulating the first Frank comic, I knew I wanted it to be something that was beyond time and specific place. I felt that having the characters speak would tie it to 20th-century America, because that would be the idiom of the language they would use, the language I use.”

Firsts Character Use Would Be Wanted America Speak Language Felt Century Comic Ties Frank 20th Century Idiom

Author:Jim Woodring

“If I speak with a character’s voice it is because that character’s become so much part of me that … I think I have the right then to imagine myself into the skin, into the life, into the dreams, into the experience of the particular character that I’ve chosen.”

Ifs Thinking Character Dream Speak Voice Imagine Particular Skins Chosen

Author:André Brink

“Playing characters that speak a very violent language was my livelihood.”

Character Speak Language Violent Livelihood

Author:Greg Bryk

“Considering how much we are all given to discuss the characters of others, and discuss them often not in the strictest spirit of charity, it is singular how little we are inclined to think that others can speak ill-naturedly of us, and how angry and hurt we are when proof reaches us that they have done so.”

Thinking Littles Done Character Spirit Speak Given Hurt Angry Charity Ill Proof Considering

Book:Anthony Trollope: The Chronicles of Barsetshire & The Palliser Novels (Unabridged): The Warden + The Barchester Towers + Doctor Thorne + Framley Parsonage + The Small House at Allington + The Last Chronicle of Barset + Can You Forgive Her? + The Prime Minister + Eustace Diamonds...

Source: Anthony Trollope: The Chronicles of Barsetshire & The Palliser Novels (Unabridged): The Warden + The Barchester Towers + Doctor Thorne + Framley Parsonage + The Small House at Allington + The Last Chronicle of Barset + Can You Forgive Her? + The Prime Minister + Eustace Diamonds...

“There can be no question of selecting in any direction, but of penetrating the whole cosmic law of rhythms, forces and material that are the real world, from the ugliest to the most beautiful, everything that has character and expression, from the crudest and most brutal to the gentlest and most delicate; everything that speaks to us in its capacity as life.”

World Real Whole Character Beautiful Law Choices Speak Force Expression Materials Capacity Rhythm Real World Cosmic Delicate Brutal Life Choices

Book:Asger Jorn

Source: Asger Jorn

“A dream inspiring a story is different than placing a description of a dream in a story. When you describe a character's dream, it has to be sharper than reality in some way, and more meaningful. It has to somehow speak to plot, character, and all the rest. If you're writing something fantastical, it can be a really deadly choice because your story already has elements that can seem dreamlike.”

Ifs Way Writing Different Character Stories Dream Reality Seems Choices Speak Elements Meaningful Description Plot

Author:Jeff VanderMeer

“I think everything you do, characters I always find, have their own voices and once you establish who that character is you find a different voice. I think it's just a question of establishing that character and the voice speaks through that character.”

Thinking Different Character Speak Voice Different Voices

Author:Guy Ritchie

“You must learn to look at people who are angry with you straight in the eye without getting angry back. When children see their parents treating them this way, they then recognize the parents' authority. It speaks louder than words. Their new respect for the parents is as good for them as it is for the parents. It never works to demand respect of children. It must be given willingly as a result of strength of good character in the parents, which is manifested by their non-reaction to stress in the children.”

People Way Looks Children Character Eye Speak Given Parent Results Demand Authority Stress Angry Reactions Back When Good Character

Author:Roy Masters

“The judge's authority depends upon the assumption that he speaks with the mouth of others. That is to say, the momentum of his utterances must be greater than any which his personal reputation and character can command, if it is to do the work assigned to it - if it is to stand against the passionate resentments arising out of the interests he must frustrate - for while a judge must discover some composition with the dominant trends of his times, he must preserve his authority by cloaking himself in the majesty of an overshadowing past.”

“Literature is the voice of the age and the state; the character, energy, and resources of the country are reflected and imaged forth in the conceptions of its great minds; they are organs of the time; they speak not their own language, they scarce think their own thoughts; but under an impulse like the prophetic enthusiasm of old, they must feel and utter the sentiments which society inspires.”

Source: Selections from the Works of Edward Everett: With a Sketch of His Life

“Hearing him speak is so fun, reassuring I dare say. You can say all you like about Sihanouk: that he's an atrocious liar, a madman, a fraud, a swashbuckler, an international blot. You may think that, but you cannot deny how in this age in which the political arena seems to generate only dull, obtuse and boring characters with no imagination, he's a kind of miracle.”

Thinking Kind May Character Seems Age Political Speak Fun Imagination Miracle International Dare Boring Deny Hearing Dull Liars Fraud Arena Madmen Reassuring

Author:Oriana Fallaci

“Average Jones had come by his nickname inevitably. His parents had foredoomed him to it when they furnished him with the initials A. V. R. E. as preface to his birthright of J for Jones. His character apparently justified the chance concomitance. He was, so to speak, a composite photograph of any thousand well-conditioned, clean-living Americans between the ages of twenty-five and thirty.”

Wells Character Age Speak Parent Chance Five Thousand Twenties Clean Photograph Average Thirty Justified Initials Twenty Five Birthright Nicknames Composites Clean Living

Book:Average Jones

Source: Average Jones

“If the modern spirit, whatever that may be, is disinclined towards taking the Lord's word at its face value (as I hear is the case), we may observe that Isaiah's testimony to the character of the masses has strong collateral support from respectable Gentile authority. Plato lived into the administration of Eubulus, when Athens was at the peak of its jazz-and-paper era, and he speaks of the Athenian masses with all Isaiah's fervency, even comparing them to a herd of ravenous wild beasts.”

“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 this with experienced writers, too: They worry so much about the plot that they lose sight of the characters. They lose sight of why they are telling the story. They don't let the characters actually speak. Characters will start to dictate the story in sometimes surprising, emotional, and funny ways. If the writers are not open to those surprises, they're going to strangle the life, spark, or spirit out of their work.”

Ifs Way Book Sometimes Character Stories Spirit Speak Loses Worry Emotional Sight Surprise Comic Plot Sparks Surprising Comic Book

Author:Brian Michael Bendis

“We were pregnant at the time, and while I was out there I started to realize that if I had a daughter, there would come a day when I would have to apologize to her for my profession. I would have to apologize for the way it treats and speaks to women readers, and the way it treats its female characters.”

Ifs Way Book Character Speak Realizing Reader Daughter Female Treats Profession Comic Pregnant Apologizing Comic Book Female Characters Were Pregnant

Author:Matt Fraction

“I just rely on the text to speak for itself and then speak it as I believe it to interpret it, and then just know that the rules of the world that we're creating allow for things to come to life, and then just trust in the process of making a film. Hopefully we'll make a sequel, because if we do, we had such a great time as an ensemble, I think the best thing to do would be to just take the whole cast back. This is Iain's idea and I agree with it. Just reincarnate all the characters and put them back into the world. There's no rules. Why couldn't we do that?”

Ifs Thinking Knows World Believe Ideas Whole Character Would Be Film Speak I Believe Process Creating Agree Casts Hopefully Best Things Things To Do Rely Great Times Sequels Ensemble

Author:Brendan Fraser

“The bad novelist constructs his characters; he directs them and makes them speak. The true novelist listens to them and watches them act; he hears their voices even before he knows them.”

Knows Character Speak Voice Watches Novelists Constructs

Author:Andre Gide

“What astonishing changes a few years are capable of producing! I am told that even respectable characters speak of a monarchical form of government without horror. From thinking proceeds speaking, thence to acting is often but a single step. But how irrevocable and tremendous! What a triumph for the advocates of despotism to find that we are incapable of governing ourselves, and that systems founded on the basis of equal liberty are merely ideal and falacious! Would to God that wise measures may be taken in time to avert the consequences we have but too much reason to apprehend.”

“Creating a character is about what they look like. The look speaks volume to the audience.”

Looks Character Speak Audience Creating Volume

Author:Ashley Madekwe

“There is one way by which a strolling player may be ever secure of success; that is, in our theatrical way of expressing it, to make a great deal of the character. To speak and act as in common life is not playing, nor is it what people come to see; natural speaking, like sweet wine, runs glibly over the palate and scarcely leaves any taste behind it; but being high in a part resembles vinegar, which grates upon the taste, and one feels it while he is drinking.”

Source: The Works of Oliver Goldsmith: The bee. Essays. Unacknowledged essays. Prefaces, introductions, etc

“The sea has been called deceitful and treacherous, but there lies in this trait only the character of a great natural power, which, to speak according to our own feelings, renews its strength, and, without reference to joy or sorrow, follows eternal laws which are imposed by a higher Power.”

Has Beens Character Feelings Law Joy Lying Speak Natural Sea Higher Sorrow Eternal Traits Treacherous Higher Power Deceitful

Author:Wilhelm von Humboldt

“The thing about great fictional characters from literature, and the reason that they're constantly turned into characters in movies, is that they completely speak to what makes people human. They're full of flaws as much as they are full of heroics. I think the reason that people love them and hate them so much is because, in some way, they always see a mirror of themselves in them, and you can always understand them on some level. Sometimes it's a terrifyingly dark mirror that's held up.”

People Thinking Way Humans Sometimes Reason Character Hate Literature Speak Dark Levels Mirrors Flaws Fictional Character

Author:Keira Knightley

“As for dream roles, they usually just speak to you. I just crave complex characters.”

Character Dream Speak Roles Complexes Crave Complex Characters

Author:Kirsten Prout

“Im not one of those authors who claims to hear voices in my head or let the characters speak through me, whatever that might mean.”

Mean Character Might Speak Voice Claims Voices In My Head

Author:Robin Wasserman

“As much as I can give of myself I give of myself. There's no reason why not. And when I have to hide something, I let the character speak.”

Giving I Can Reason Character Speak Reason Why No Reason Why Not

Book:Isaac Bashevis Singer: Conversations

Source: Isaac Bashevis Singer: Conversations

“What was it that obliged Jerome to write his book, Concerning Illustrious Men? It was the common reproach of old cast upon Christians, 'That they were all poor, weak, unlearned men.' The sort of men sometime called 'Puritans' in the English nation have been reproached with the same character. . . But when truth shall have liberty to speak, it will be known that Christianity never was more expressed unto the life than in the lives of the persons that have been thus reproached.”

Men Writing Persons Has Beens Book Character Christian Speak Nations Poor Common Known Liberty Christianity Weak Casts Obliged Reproach Puritan

Author:Cotton Mather

“Well, it speaks to the character of the players more than anything. Bob Myers and his staff have done an incredible job of putting together this roster. I was well aware of the versatility that the roster had, but as I got to know the players I realized they had what it took spiritually, emotionally. They were united. They wanted to win. They were close.”

Knows Wells Done Character Wanted Together Jobs Winning Speak United Player Incredibles I Realized Bob Staff Championship Nba Championships Versatility Rosters

Author:Steve Kerr

“"Vell," said Mr. Weller, "Now I s'pose he'll want to call some witnesses to speak to his character, or p'raps to prove a alleybi. I've been a turnin' the bis'ness over in my mind, and he may make his-self easy, Sammy. I've got some friends as'll do either for him, but my adwice 'ud be this here-never mind the character, and stick to the alleybi. Nothing like a alleybi, Sammy, nothing."”

Want Mind May Said Self Character Funny Speak Easy Prove Humorous Sticks Rap Witness

Book:The posthumous papers of the Pickwick Club

Source: The posthumous papers of the Pickwick Club

“Boswell, when he speaks of his Life of Johnson, calls it my magnum opus, but it may more properly be called his opera, for it is truly a composition founded on a true story, in which there is a hero with a number of subordinate characters, and an alternate succession of recitative and airs of various tone and effect, all however in delightful animation.”

May Character Stories Speak Numbers Air Effects Hero Various Tone Opera Composition Delightful Animation Johnson Succession Subordinates True Story

Book:Boswell, the great biographer, 1789-1795

Source: Boswell, the great biographer, 1789-1795

“One of the first observations to make in conversation is the state, or the character, and the education of the person to whom we speak.”

Firsts Persons States Character Speak Conversation Observation

Author:Suzanne Curchod

“The novelist, unlike many of his colleagues, makes up a number of word-masses roughly describing himself (roughly: niceties shallcome later), gives them names and sex, assigns them plausible gestures, and causes them to speak by the use of inverted commas, and perhaps to behave consistently.”

Giving Character Use Literature Names Speak Sex Causes Numbers Mass Novelists Behave Gestures Consistently Colleagues Describing Plausible Inverted Niceties

Author:E. M. Forster

“What we'd consider a positive role model, I think it's impossible to actually be a role model. You'll have your flaws or defects of character, regardless. You just speak like a positive role model, and that's just something that you're being conscious of, and you make the decision, "I want to say positive things."”

Thinking Want Character Speak Decision Roles Impossible Models Conscious Flaws Role Models Defects Positive Things Positive Role Model Defects Of Character

Author:Curtis Jackson

“What draws me to roles, I think, are moments - moments that define character, where so much more of the story is told in just a moment - a look, a line, a short scene, but something that speaks a volume, something that speaks to me.”

Thinking Looks Moments Character Stories Speak Lines Roles Scene Draws Volume

Author:Nathan Fillion

“They [my characters]speak to me all the time! In fact some of them never shut up!”

Character Facts Speak Shut Up

Author:Michael Scott

“If you speak in a different accent, you begin to move in a slightly different way. You think in a slightly different way. It's part of trying to find what makes a character.”

Ifs Thinking Way Trying Different Character Moving Speak Different Ways Accents

Author:David Tennant

“The way you speak of the characters in your story shows what you think of the values of conservatives‚ or evolution, for example. It shows where your moral center is. So you are in the message business whether you like it or not.”

Thinking Way Character Stories Shows Values Speak Moral Example Evolution Messages You Like It

Author:Philip Pullman