Characters in a story quotes:

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A reader doesn't really see the characters in a story; he feels them. -- Cornelia Funke
We have to give our poor, innocent, and undeserving-of-our-badness characters trouble in order to make them characters in a story. -- Alice Mattison
When there is a strong woman character in a story - that always grabs me. -- Ang Lee
I'd like to be in anything that tells a good story and has an interesting character. -- John Boyega
It's harder to write a story with just two people in a room than with 50 characters. -- Michael Haneke
Whatever story you're telling in Louisiana, the landscape is going to become a character in it. -- Nic Pizzolatto
An author's life is different, complex, and ongoing, while a character's remains frozen in one little story. -- Lorrie Moore
It's a real challenge to complete a story arc and end up with a cool punchline in 120 characters. -- Mark Hoppus
Alice Munro is a particular kind of short story writer in that she writes long, character-driven short stories. -- Nell Freudenberger
I'm an actor. I try to play a character in a really cool story, the very best I can. -- Matthew Fox
I always look for good stories and good characters, and if they're placed in a whodunit, then I'm interested. -- Joel Kinnaman
I believe that the writer should tell a story. I believe in plot. I believe in creating characters and suspense. -- Ernest Gaines
New York in a way functions as another character within the story, as it does within most of Woody Allen's stories. -- Radha Mitchell
The same way that you are the main character of your story, you are only a secondary character in everybody else's story. -- Don Miguel Ruiz
In independent film you tend to have stories that involve more of a community, and the smaller characters are important to the story. -- David Morse
In terms of writing characters or stories, at least initially, there's no difference between live-action and animation. A good story is a good story, whatever the medium. -- Michael Arndt
I don't look at stories in genres. A good story is a good story, no matter what planet it happens on, whether the characters are mice or human or whatever. That's how I look at it. -- Tony DiTerlizzi
The story drove the book. That had a very seminal effect on the way I saw writing and storytelling. If you can set a character in a story that is compelling and has a backbone, you draw people in. -- Dick Wolf
Push' had a story, 'The Paperboy' story you could just throw up in the air and shoot holes through the book because the story wasn't as strong. But I felt the characters were stronger in 'The Paperboy'; they were vivid. -- Lee Daniels
A lot of cable television is shot on a single camera. Our eyes are more trained to that. It takes the camera off the crane, away from observing the action, to becoming a character in the story along with everyone else. People are getting used to that. -- A. J. Bowen
I don't know quite how a story develops in my head. It is a bit chaotic. If I am working on a series, one of the main characters at least is already in existence as well as some setting and minor characters. Finding the other main character can be a challenge. Sometimes this character already exists in a minor role in another book. -- Mary Balogh
I'd say Rob Reiner's 'When Harry Met Sally' is my all-time favorite. It made me realize there's a way of telling a story where the audience is so in love with the characters that they forget you're even telling a story. -- Tim Story
A story is built on characters and reasons. -- Steven Amsterdam
The story and the characters of 'Girl Online' are mine. -- Zoe Sugg
I'm first and foremost interested in the story, the characters. -- David Lean
As the story unfolded, the cast of characters changed to match it. -- Warren Spector
Anything with a good story and characters I think would be great. -- Kara Hayward
My work is to know the characters intimately and to tell their story. -- Julianna Baggott
I love seeing a story evolve over several books and watching characters develop. -- Marie Rutkoski
The real story is not the plot, but how the characters unfold by it. -- Vanna Bonta
I love the opportunity to tell the story about the characters through the music. -- Alex Kurtzman
Usually with film writing I start with characters, and set about writing their story. -- Billy Bob Thornton
Fans want to see a story with characters, and they want to see a story. -- Martin Freeman
But keep characters in propinquity long enough and a story will always develop a plot. -- Keith Miller
In drama, the characters should determine the story. In melodrama, the story determines the characters. -- Sidney Lumet
You and I are characters in God's Story, handmade by Him. Every character serves a purpose. -- Randy Alcorn
Supporting characters add depth to a story, and great actors leave their imprint with the audience. -- Nicholas Lea
Every story starts with an idea, but it is the characters that move this idea forward. -- Michael Scott
The most exciting part of writing a novel is when the characters take control of the story -- Brandt Legg
Every paragraph should accomplish two goals: advance the story, and develop your characters as complex human beings. -- Nancy Kress
I try to trace the connection between the characters and that way a story or plot emerges. -- Anita Desai
Their situation was becoming ever harder to deny: they were characters in someone's story. This whole world-- -- Stephen King
I don't think you can teach someone how to come up with good characters or a story. -- Thomas Lennon
I tend to favour films that have multiple plot and story lines, multiple characters and ensemble pieces. -- Spike Lee
Characters are story. And any great plot or subplot is driven by the characters' wants and desires. -- Robert Gregory Browne
Remember, if you don't feel passionate about the characters and subject of your story, your readers won't either. -- Meg Cabot
When I wrote my first story, all the characters were teenagers because I think 16, 17 is a great age. -- Julie Kagawa
I think love is a great catalyst for many characters to further the story or their own growth. -- Keri Russell
The story line, the comparisons to this show and the Bible Ends after the names of the characters. -- George Jackson
I usually grow sick of my short-story characters and think, 'I never want to see you again.' -- Lorrie Moore
The Hobbit' didn't include female characters at all and was a very linear story, a book for children, really. -- Evangeline Lilly
I prefer playing characters that are going through turmoil. Most movie characters are just in service to the story. -- Jesse Eisenberg
I believe in storytelling, not story-selling. I want people to believe the characters are real. So I'm a realist. -- Morgan Spurlock
And almost always there has to be change, change in the characters is the journey - it's the story. -- Graham Brown
I didn't 'decide' to write YA, per se. But every time I thought of a story, it featured characters 15, 16, 17. -- Sara Zarr
I love characters songs and I love to fit into a story. I love singing through a character's journey. -- Katie Finneran
For me as a storyteller, I want to follow the characters and the story through what they organically demand. -- Nic Pizzolatto
In the world of your story, your outline is like the Ten Commandments. Unfortunately, your characters are all Atheists. -- Jefferson Smith
Often I'll find clues to where the story might go by figuring out where the characters would rather not go. -- Douglas A. Lawson
The story line of my novel [The Kite Runner] is largely fictional. The characters were invented and the plot imagined. -- Khaled Hosseini
I think it's a short story writer's duty, as well as writing well about emotions and characters, to write story. -- Eric Brown
Compelling characters are not cogs in the machine of your plot; they are human beings to whom the story happens. -- David Corbett
You'll work hard to create characters that are compelling and unforgettable. But in the end, it's the story that matters. -- James Dashner
As a writer, I challenge myself not to tell the same story - to tackle different characters with different issues. -- Eric Jerome Dickey
You cannot base a whole movie on just the imagery alone. It has to be the story and the characters. -- John Lasseter
The "Toy Story" films accomplish what timeless classics aim for - innocent characters who face an endless trail of adventures. -- Tom Hanks
Anne DeGrace is a gifted story teller and Far From Home contains some of her most intriguing characters. Thoroughly enjoyable. -- Paulette Jiles
When you have love in a story, it gives you the freedom to really take the characters to very interesting places. -- Josh Hutcherson
Anything you write, even if you have to start over, is valuable. I let the story write itself through the characters. -- Steve Buscemi
Poignant, earthy, intensely human, Letters From A Stranger is a love story that is as unusual and courageous as its characters. -- Elizabeth Lowell
The number 1 thing that I don't want to see in a story is when characters exist simply to be proven wrong. -- Brandon Sanderson
I am a tremendous 'Star Wars' fan; I know the story means an enormous love to me. I love the characters. -- Richard Marquand
My only conclusion about structure is that nothing works if you don't have interesting characters and a good story to tell. -- Harold Ramis
I think I technically learned some things, hopefully. But I go to the movies for characters and story and a berserk vision. -- John Waters
You set up the story, but the characters start talking, and they go places that you didn't expect. You have to follow. -- Zoe Kazan
Any jokes I make I try to make sure it's on story and helps the characters and makes sense with the movie. -- Aziz Ansari
I've managed to include only enough historical detail to give the "flavor" of the time period while keeping the characters and story focal. -- Julie Klassen
Batman and Superman are very different characters but they're both iconic and elemental. Finding the right story for them both is the key. -- Christopher Nolan
I look for characters that interest me, and a story that keeps me involved and makes me want to know what happens next. -- Curtis Hanson
I'm not really a plot writer - I'm more interested in the characters and sort of small events that propel the story forward. -- Sara Zarr
You want to tell a great story. You want these characters to become part of people's lives. And then, hopefully, that generates discussion. -- Todd Lieberman
Before I started to make films, I didn't give much thought to the way the characters were physically positioned in the story world. -- Etgar Keret
I put my heart and soul into my book - great story and awesome characters... yet people are trying to pull me down. -- Nick Simmons
It's important to find characters that share sympathy with a young audience, not just in the story but their role in the world. -- Tim Crouch
All characters come from people I know, but after the initial inspiration, I tend to modify the characters so they fit with the story. -- Nicholas Sparks
I care more about making sure the story is correct and the characters are behaving in character than I do about the individual jokes. -- Michael Schur
Short story characters, mine anyway, are usually driven by impulse, not so much by their histories and the choices that they have to make. -- Charles Baxter
If a movie has more characters than an audience can keep track of, the audience will get confused and lose interest in the story. -- Seth Grahame-Smith
Women don't question themselves when they enter into a story that has male characters, but men do question the validity of a female narrative. -- Romola Garai
Actors want to work. Give them characters they want to play, or a story they want to tell, and hopefully the budget will follow. -- Lorene Scafaria
I'm not one of these 'the characters write themselves; the story just fell out of me' kind of writers. Wish it was like that. -- Markus Zusak
You can have the greatest characters in the world and write beautifully, but if nothing's happening, the story falls on its face pretty quickly. -- Jennifer McMahon
As a rule, I don't worry about genre. I just want to tell a good story, with characters that interest me and my readers. -- Stephen King
I think I do pretty well with child characters. It's hard to write kids that are realistic, not annoying, and bring something to the story. -- Elizabeth Hoyt
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The way the films look will never entertain an audience alone. It has to be in the service of a good story with great characters. -- John Lasseter
It's a luxury to be able to tell a long form story. I love novels, and I love to have a long relationship with characters. -- Jane Campion
You are always hoping that movie audiences are interested in characters and interested in story values rather than just mindless special effects. But you never know. -- Clint Eastwood
My favorite novels allow me to imagine the characters afterward and what happened, and that I've witnessed a really great story, where the world goes on. -- J. H. Wyman
We start with strong characters and build the movie from there. That not to say we don't struggle with story - that's the most challenging part. -- Chris Meledandri
I like to be surprised. Fresh implications and plot twists erupt as a story unfolds. Characters develop backgrounds, adding depth and feeling. Writing feels like exploring. -- David Brin
There are secrets at the heart of every story; there is something that must be uncovered or discovered, both by the reader and by the characters. -- Hannah Kent
I like to be surprised. Fresh implications and plot twists erupt as a story unfolds. Characters develop backgrounds, adding depth and feeling. Writing feels like exploring -- David Brin
When I'm writing a book, sentence by sentence, I'm not thinking theoretically. I'm just trying to work out the story from inside the characters I've got. -- Salman Rushdie
Authors can only soft sell the environment. Create a wonderful story around the environment involving the characters that leaves a lasting impression on the reader's mind. -- Wilbur Smith
The only difference is that religion is much better organised and has been around much longer, but it's the same story with different characters and different costumes. -- James Randi
As a writer, my main objective is to tell the story urgently - as if whispering it into one ear - and to know the characters intimately. -- Julianna Baggott
The only difference is that religion is much better organized and has been around much longer, but it's the same story with different characters and different costumes. -- James Randi
Television provides the opportunity for an ongoing story - the opportunity to meld the cast and the characters and a world, and to spend more time there. -- David Lynch
The goal is to have every character take on a life of his or her own. Sometimes characters will come into the story that I haven't planned. -- Francine Rivers
In real life, people are constantly saying one thing and doing another, but if you write your characters that way, the story becomes too hard to follow. -- Jessica Cutler
You can't write a sory until you've felt. Breathe it in. Walked with your characters. Talked with them. That's why you come here. To live your story. -- Angelica Banks
I start with a tingle, a kind of feeling of the story I will write. Then come the characters, and they take over, they make the story. -- Isak Dinesen
Discover everything about your characters that you can before you write your story. If you get stuck at any point, they will write your dialog for you. -- Michael J. Kannengieser
With action films, it's great if it's not just driven by action, but by a good story and interesting characters, as well. Though, there's nothin' like kicking butt! -- Dwayne Johnson
It's also possible to have two third person singular points of view, as represented by two characters through whose eyes the story is told in alternating chapters, say. -- Arthur Herzog
A first-person voice helps to ensure the uniformity and cohesiveness of the narrative; it gathers unto itself incidents and characters in its unstoppable progress toward the story's end. -- Norman Lock
It doesn't matter how beautifully a film is photographed. The acting tells your story. It's what people relate to. If you don't believe the characters, it doesn't work. -- Seymour Cassel
Once we got over the origin story, we could really delve deeper into their lives and characters and angst. So this movie actually has more heart, more humor. -- Avi Arad
People who were more concerned with themselves and looking good to their readers then they were with the characters sacrificed a series for the sake of a story. -- Len Wein

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