Characterization Quotes

“I've committed to nothing...and that's just suicide...by tiny, tiny increments.”
― Nick Hornby, High Fidelity

“She was like Marat only with nobody to kill her.”
― Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita

“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.”
― Bernard Knox, The Oedipus Cycle: Oedipus Rex, Oedipus at Colonus, Antigone

“Bless thy simplicity, Tess”
― Thomas Hardy, Tess of the D’Urbervilles

“You could sometimes see her twelfth year in her cheeks, or her ninth sparkling from her eyes; and even her fifth would flit over the curves of her mouth now and then.”
― Thomas Hardy, Tess of the D’Urbervilles

“She is pure Alice in Wonderland, and her appearance and demeanor are a nicely judged mix of the Red Queen and a Flamingo.”
― Truman Capote

“Over the years I have forged intimate familial ties with these characters, who are reflections of a portion of myself. Consequently, even a character who appeared only once in a short story waits now in the wings, concealed by the curtain, for his next appearance on-stage. Not one of them has ever broken free of his familial ties with me and disappeared for ever - at least, not within the confines of my heart.”
― Shusaku Endo, The Final Martyrs

“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!”
― Roman Payne

“Favoring 'resolution' the way we do, it is hard for us men to write great love stories. Why?, because we want to tell too much. We aren’t satisfied unless at the end of the story the characters are lying there, panting.”
― Roman Payne

“A good American makes propaganda for whatever existence has forced him to become.”
― Saul Bellow

“Clever's not enough to hold me - I want characters who are more than devices to be moved about for Effect.”
― Laura Anne Gilman

“I do not know the man I should avoid So soon as that spare Cassius. He reads much, He is a great observer, and he looks Quite through the deeds of men. He loves no plays As thou dost, Anthony; he heard no music; Seldom he smiles, and smiles in such a sort As if he mocked himself and scorned his spirit That could be moved to smile at anything. Such men as he be never at heart's ease Whiles they behold a greater than themselves, And therefore are they very dangerous.”
― William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar

“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.”
― W. Somerset Maugham, Collected Short Stories: Volume 4

“She was frightened of him - his manner was severely cold and aloof...I have never seen anymore more exquisitely calm, more self-assured or more imperious.”
― Ivan Turgenev, First Love

“He gave me a look of great contempt; as I supposed, for venturing, even by implication, to draw a parallel between a lack of affluence that might, literally, affect my purchase of rare vintages, and a figure of speech intended delicately to convey his own dire want for the bare necessities of life. He remained silent for several seconds, as if trying to make up his mind whether he could ever bring himself to speak to me again; and then said gruffly: 'I've got to go now.”
― Anthony Powell, A Buyer's Market

“(She) threw Stephen a quick, apologetic glance and ran into the house. She might be in a strange hurry of spirits, but she moved with the perfect, unconscious grace that had always touched him, and he felt a wave of tenderness, allied to his former passionate love; perhaps its ghost.”
― Patrick O'Brian, The Surgeon's Mate

“Mary did not believe in analysing herself, and she had left vague the notion that sometimes came to her that this anxious unfulfilled sort of loving was the only kind of which she was capable.”
― Iris Murdoch, The Nice and the Good

“She's beautiful, but I don't say she's easy to know."

"Ah, she's a thousand and one things!”
― Henry James, The Wings of the Dove

“He had the kind of shrunken posture that promised something terrible had happened to him.”
― Caroline Zancan, We Wish You Luck

“Kafka's characters are not more abstract than real people: they are people attached to a job.”
― Günther Anders, Kafka pro und contra: Die Prozess-Unterlagen.

“Jealous Othello, ready for murder, was suddenly transformed into a schoolboy.”
― Ivan Turgenev, First Love

“Blink finds joy in the little things, just like her mother. Except, mommy also fancies the clumsier treasures, preferably those that are old, broken, smelly or covered in filth - anything to shelter the cockroaches who watch the house while Rosemary is out.”
― Remy Fernandes

“But another great rule for choosing good characters is to simply pick people you would enjoy getting to know better. Remember: You will be spending a lot of time with these people. As you consider a possible character for your story, ask yourself this question: How would you feel about going on a month-long cruise with them? Even the unsavory characters in your book—the black-hearted villains and nine-headed gorgons—should be interesting enough that you wouldn’t mind playing shuffleboard or sharing the lobster buffet with them every day for a month.”
― Chris Baty, No Plot? No Problem!

“Sometimes, if I can’t tell if the name works for a character, I try yelling it out loud. You know, as if they’re falling off a cliff and I’ve got to catch them. If it sounds right, it’s a keeper.”
― Sarah Harricharan

“Raven has always been nice, in the same way vanilla ice cream is nice but you’d rather have cookie dough.”
― Jessica Goodman, They'll Never Catch Us

“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.”
― Lucy Mangan, Inside Charlie's Chocolate Factory: The Complete Story of Willy Wonka, the Golden Ticket, and Roald Dahl's Most Famous Creation.

“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.”
― Lucy Mangan, Inside Charlie's Chocolate Factory: The Complete Story of Willy Wonka, the Golden Ticket, and Roald Dahl's Most Famous Creation.

“Though Faulkner has written at times about depraved people doing depraved things, he never denies his characters their basic humanity. He does not condescend to them and he always allows them whatever modicum or dignity they are entitled to; his humor and compassion are always in evidence.”
― William Gay, Stories from the Attic

“This hurtful side to him made no sense, the old Maggot wouldn't have hurt a fly. Except obviously to pull its wings off, which is just kid crap.”
― Barbara Kingsolver, Demon Copperhead

“Structurally unsound,” Jainan said. “Blame the contractors.”
― Everina Maxwell, Winter’s Orbit