What I've always tried to find in my books are points at which the private lives of the characters, and also my own, intersect with the public life of the culture.
The fact that my female characters have strong personalities but are also physically attractive probably reflects the women I've known in my life.
You've got to be happy when you play a sad character; otherwise, you just get depressed. Make your real life as fun as possible.
One of the reasons I began to write was because I wanted stories for my children where the characters spoke as they did and had similar life experiences.
I don't want to write lines where characters tell me exactly how they feel; I want to see people talk about anything but their feelings, like they do in real life.
Grandeur of character lies wholly in force of soul, that is, in the force of thought, moral principle, and love, and this may be found in the humblest condition of life.
I think I've spent so much time playing characters that are so far away from me and learning how to technically build and how to technically put something on top of you.
At the very core of my relationship to learning is the idea that we should be as organic as possible. We need to cultivate a deeply refined introspective sense, and build our relationship to learning around our nuance of character.
I've done some TV and I've done a lot of theater, obviously, and the last character I played on Broadway was a very fast-talking broad. I'm used to learning material and words.
One of my favourite kinds of movie is the American picaresque, in which the characters make their way across the country, learning about life against the gorgeous backdrops of that vast land.
I love the characters not knowing everything and the reader knowing more than them. There's more mischief in that and more room for seriousness, too.
Because I like theatre and I love a challenge. With 'ZEBRA!' I've found a new Australian play where I can create a character first - that's what I live to do.
I love developing children as characters. Children rarely have important roles in literary fiction - they are usually defined as cute or precious, or they create a plot by being kidnapped or dying.
I used to love 'Murphy Brown' as a kid. I didn't even understand half of the jokes that were going on, but I loved the character so much that they stood out.
I would love to be on a show where I'm allowed to play a character that you're not suspicious of, from the get-go, and who's someone that you can just relax with, take in and like, right off the bat.
I love to start characters in a place where you think you know them. We can make all kinds of assumptions about them and think they have no redeeming qualities, but like everyone, they're complex.
The character I play is a wonderful compilation of things I hate about myself and things I love about myself and things that I've invented to make her even more interesting than me.
Kellie Overbey gave me this play called 'Girl Talk.' I read it and totally fell in love with the characters. I told her she had to let me direct it and put Marcia DeBonis in it.
I love the challenge of having one character who is traveling back in time to find someone. Nowadays, the only way we think to find someone is on Facebook.
I love when I get compliments on my shirts all the time. I'm a t-shirt guy, and I think nine times out of 10, they have some kind of super hero character on them.
I love the simplicity of Kevin Spacey's work. He really does a subtle interpretation of every character, and that's kind of my style of acting when it comes to dramatic roles.
