Character Development Quotes

Too often we sit back and speak platitudes of the nitty-gritty bits of writing; the editing, the story structure, the verbal sparring vs. banter, the character development, the world-building become more important to us than the tune rhythm of the tale. And when you lose the music of the story, all the footwork in the world is not going to make up for the loss of continuity and heart.
We need to take a step back in our souls and conjure the image of what this story is: the notes and beats and things woven into it's fullness. See, that's what is so easy to lose sight of as we write. We forget that, in a way, this story is a full story in itself. We tend to try to build the story piece by piece, line upon line, precept upon precept, but that--as any true writer knows--is not entirely practical. A story does have its own identity. To some extent, the story exists in your mind as a whole. Its own being. To chance sounding sappy: Your story is a full piece of music waiting for you to dance it into existence. Don't make the mistake of leaving out all the music.
It is tempting to want to have everything arranged to perfection so that little editing will be done. But if you are keeping in mind the way your story needs to run--feeling it and dwelling in the beauty of its passion and color and vibe--the footwork will take care of itself. Certainly it will require practice and your technicalities will need a little work--everyone's does. But you will have captured the essenc ~ Rachel Heffington

Don't seek to be respected by everyone, rather seek to be worthy of being respected by everyone. ~ Bohdi Sanders

Character grows in the soil of experience with the fertilization of example, the moisture of ambition, and the sunshine of satisfaction. Character cannot be purchased, bargained for, inherited, rented or imported from afar. It must be home-grown. Purely intellectual development without commensurate internal character development makes as much sense as putting a high-powered sports car in the hands of a teenager who is high on drugs. Yet all too often in the academic world, that's exactly what we do by not focusing on the character development of young people. ~ Stephen Covey

Lowell's best friend was the heroically moustached art director of a tobacco magazine that published in the same building where Lowell worked at plumbing. His name was Harry Balmer, and despite the evidence of his moustache he was nervous, compulsive, and wracked with small fears. He looked his best from across a wide room; the closer you got to him, the more he seemed to fall apart into a mass of twitches and gnawed finernails and the clearer it became that this big, smart-looking moustache was a kind of bush he was trying to hide behind. ~ L.J. Davis

All tales, then, are at some level a journey into the woods to find the missing part of us, to retrieve it and make ourselves whole. Storytelling is as simple - and complex - as that. That's the pattern. That's how we tell stories. ~ John Yorke

There's no doubt West Point impacted who I am ... It has an enormous emphasis, not only on military aspects, but character development. Whether it's the honor code, or the interactions you have, both with the cadet leadership and the academy leadership, every place you are is a character test. ~ Mike Pompeo

Life will never meet all of our expectations. We must nonetheless accept all disappointments without becoming bitter and cynical. We must always remain mindful of the opportunity to extend kindness and work to improve our character. ~ Kilroy J. Oldster

Before her was a man who wasted words on no one. If he said something, you could take the worth of his words to the bank. In her home was a man who had the skill and talent to be anyone and chose to be the best version of himself. ~ Sarah Winter

The author relates that the word "OBSCENE" springs from the concept in Greek drama that certain actions would be performed outside the scene or off the stage. He clarifies that the Greeks did not shy away from shocking actions, but they knew that portraying them in the audience's view would drown out the emotional subtlety of the character development and ethical dilemmas. ~ Gene Edward Veith Jr.

[the writer] must copy, with his finite mind, the process of the infinite 'I AM. ~ John Gardner

Each time I discovered a potential link between one character's story and another's, several more connections would reveal themselves, like a beautiful, complex web spinning itself. ~ Richard Scarsbrook

The most powerful enemies influence and defeat you in your mind. ~ Sahara Sanders

In real life people do occasionally act out of character or do things we wouldn't normally expect them to do. In fiction, there should be a good reason for a character to do something outside of the ordinary. ~ Craig Hart

It's about personal development. It's about creating your own character and pushing it to the limit. It's about pushing yourself so far out of your own and everybody else's idea of who you are and what you're capable of, that you no longer believe in limits. It's about reaching beyond your so-called potential, because your potential is never where you or anyone else expects it to be, not even close. It's about being able to say with the last breath of your life I used all my potential and all my talents and pushed myself to the limit. I could not have fought any harder. ~ Charlotte Eriksson

The more intelligent the storytelling becomes and the deeper the character development, people will realize in film and television, like they do in real life, that human beings possess both good and bad. ~ Robert LaSardo

He'd done his walls with paint from Holy Basil. God, I yearned for their colors. I hadn't been able to afford them myself but I knew their color chart like the back of my hand. His hall was done in Gangrene, his stairs in Agony and his living room
unless I was very much mistaken
in Dead Whale. Colors I personally very much approved of. ~ Marian Keyes

There are two types of poverty: Money poverty and character poverty. Both are to be hated with equal passion ~ Nicky Verd

Plot is very important to me, but I think my stories are stronger in character development. ~ Tom Johnson

Self-control is the only possible road to character development ~ Dennis Prager

I don't really have a drive toward being a director at all. Not that I wouldn't rule it out, but I just don't think my instincts lie necessarily in a very visual way. But I am very interested in storytelling, narrative and character development, so writing is something that I absolutely want to do. ~ Rose McIver

She found it easier to forgive than Ove did. Forgive God and the universe and everything. Ove got angry instead. Maybe because he felt someone had to be angry on her behalf, when everything that was evil seemed to assail the only person he'd ever met who didn't deserve it. ~ Fredrik Backman

Generally, in the long history of storytelling, there has been a move from almost total emphasis on acting––in the myth form, where the audience learns simply by modeling themselves on the hero's actions––to a heavy emphasis on learning, in which the audience's concern is to figure out what is happening, who these people really are, and what events really transpired, before achieving full understanding of how to live a good life. ~ John Truby

I'd write of people and places like I knew, and I'd make my characters talk everyday English; and I'd let the sun rise and set in the usual quiet way without much fuss over the fact. If I had to have villains at all, I'd give them a chance, Anne
I'd give them a chance. There are some terrible bad men the world, I suppose, but you'd have to go a long piece to find them ... But most of us have got a little decency somewhere in us. Keep on writing, Anne. ~ L.M. Montgomery

The most important lesson I've learned as a writer is that practice of the art is something I must exercise every day. The reason for this constant training is that any idea worth discovering is bigger than my head. The twists and turns, story and plot, characters and character development of a novel cannot be held in a single thought or even in a train of thought. This novel takes up a lot of space and needs room to breathe and evolve. ~ Walter Mosley

Costume design is so important and really helpful, and I really love that aspect of character development, just figuring it out. ~ Katherine Waterston

Even under false accusation those who are in the right can afford to be calm and considerate. God is acquainted with all that is misunderstood and misinterpreted by men, and we can safely leave our case in His hands. He will as surely vindicate the cause of those who put their trust in Him as He searched out the guilt of Achan. Those who are actuated by the spirit of Christ will possess that charity which suffers long and is kind. ~ Ellen G. White

Psychological complexity, character development, the killer line to end a scene, villains blotched with virtue, heroic characters speckled with villainy, foreshadow and backflash, artful misdirection. ~ David Mitchell

Children are 25 percent of the population but 100 percent of the future. If we wish to renew society, we must raise up a generation of children who have strong moral character. And if we wish to do that, we have two responsibilities: first, to model good character in our own lives, and second, to intentionally foster character development in our young. ~ Thomas Lickona

When people realized I'm strong, some of them appeared to be morons who automatically assumed it meant they might feel free to "beat" me as hard as they liked to, supposing it had to be fine with me. ~ Sahara Sanders

Character is developed one positive action at a time. Therefore nothing is actually trivial in our lives. To grow in character development, pay attention to seemingly trivial matters. Someone who grows from each minor life event will eventually reach high levels of character perfection. ~ Zelig Pliskin

Letti wasn't born to pass through the world. She had been born to sit atop of it. ~ S.R. Crawford

While every chapter should have goals to further the plot and delve our readers deeper into our world, there must be one goal above all else: Emotional Impact. ~ A.J. Flowers

But true mastery in The Martial Way involves more than mere physical prowess and expertise. The master warrior is a man of character, a man of wisdom and insight. These goals are far more elusive than those regarding technical expertise. Elusive they may be, but you can begin the long road towards character development by learning to recognize and pursue internal versus external objectives. ~ Forrest E. Morgan

From the beginning, I did not intend to create a typical classic fantasy. I wanted an organic, harmonious world where my story could evolve. If this world needed gnomes, I put them in there. As for drevalyankas, pikshas, bolugs and other totally original creatures, they appeared there somehow by themselves in the course of events, and then just began "to get under the feet of the main heroes" ... ~ Irina Lopatina

The biographical novel sets out to document this truth, for character is plot, character development is action, and character fulfillment is resolution. ~ Irving Stone

You must learn to be three people at once: writer, character, and reader. ~ Nancy Kress

Character development is what I value most as a reader of fiction. If an author can manage to create the sort of characters who feel fully real, who I find myself worrying about while I'm walking through the grocery store aisles a week later, that to me is as close to perfection as it gets. ~ J. Courtney Sullivan

The person you are (in total, at that moment in time) is what creates the story you're writing. It's infused in every piece of punctuation, in the plot, in the most minor character who crosses the page. It's all your voice. ~ Victor LaValle

I'm very much about stories that are fast but character development that moves slow. ~ Ann Nocenti

That's where everything starts, as an actor: you've gotta have great writing and great character development, and then you have really great materials to work from. ~ Matt Lauria

Brandon: How does the character fit into the story, how will people expect them to fit into the story, and how, therefore, can I make them incongruous for those expectations? I'm looking for incongruity. Ask yourself why this character cannot fill the role in the plot that they are expected to fulfill. Ask yourself who would be perfect for this role. I'm not going to use that person. ~ Brandon Sanderson

There's no tipping point where you become what you are. Character development starts when you're growing up. Your socioeconomic background contributes. The attitude that gets you through some communities doesn't work in corporate America. It's not an excuse, but it does help explain ~ Maurice Clarett

God's ultimate goal for your life on earth is not comfort, but character development. He wants you to grow up spiritually and become like Christ. ~ Rick Warren

It's like making a sandwich. I start with the bread and the meat. That's the architecture. Add some cheese, lettuce and tomato. That's character development and polishing. Then, the fun part. All the little historical details and the slang and the humor is the mayonnaise. I go back and slather that shit everywhere. The mayo is the best part. I'm a bit messy with the mayo. ~ Laini Giles

Delicious days ahead for solitude and writing and, oh yes, the holiday meal with family. Live with my characters until term starts in 2012! ~ Stella Atrium

When we encounter a friend who's depressed or afraid, we automatically try to take that distress away and to cheer the person up. While we may be operating with the best of intentions, this Band-Aid approach only reinforces the condition. Unless people experience their pain completely and begin to undrstand it, they will not only fail to overcome it, they'll also lose the opportunity of using it to advance their own growth. Pain can get you somewhere, and that somewhere can be a life-enhancing experience. We all tend to forget that pain can signal change. Alleviating the symptoms of pain in someone, without helping them to get at its underlying source, robs them of an important to for self-exploration. It's also a way of placating that reinforces the person'S need to cave in and succumb to another. This attitude undermines healthy character development and contributes to psychospiritual, moral, and ultimately social decay. ~ Adele Von Rust McCormick

God does not make our choices easier because temptation is his character development curriculum. ~ Erwin W. Lutzer

Some of the martial arts films, the motivation is about martial arts. That's where it's coming from. It is a visual, commercial film, to showcase the next stunt, the biggest thing. And character development becomes a side thing. ~ Michelle Yeoh

Once you've established where you are, you go to the character and elaborate on expressions and action. ~ Sergio Aragones

The way that we think is dependent upon our flowering formal and informal education. How we think affects our behavior. How we conduct ourselves in the unscripted interactions with our family, friends, and lovers alters our emotional being. Our emotional being funnels our thought processes. Our community modulates our actions and establishes standards for behavior, and our logical reasoning and moral reasoning skills evolve as we mature. The didactical association between education, thinking, behaving, communal relationships, and the ongoing process of making logical and moral decisions continues to shape unions and disunions of our transforming character. ~ Kilroy J. Oldster

Education is character development, harmonious completion of human personality. But what the state accomplishes in this field is dull drill, extinction of natural feeling, narrowing of the spiritual field of vision, destruction of all the deeper elements of character in man. The state can train subjects ... but it can never develop free men who take their affairs into their own hands; for independent thought is the greatest danger that it has to fear. ~ Rudolf Rocker

Wealth gives you options, and your decisions about what to do with your options say much about your character. ~ Beau Sides

Hardships occur to build a person's character. ~ Sahara Sanders

Pixar's short films convinced Disney that if the company could produce memorable characters within five minutes, then the confidence was there in creating a feature film with those abilities in story and character development. ~ John Lasseter

There are epic impulses everywhere you look in There Will Be Blood; what's missing is character development, focused storytelling and, most significantly (apart from that terrific opening sequence), any sense of raw, intuitive drama. ~ Stephanie Zacharek

Reading leads to good character development. ~ Lailah Gifty Akita

But Froi looked around with wonder.
As if he had never seen the world from up so high before. ~ Melina Marchetta

This sucks on so many levels." Dialogue from "Jason X" Rare for a movie to so frankly describe itself. "Jason X" sucks on the levels of storytelling, character development, suspense, special effects, originality, punctuation, neatness and aptness of thought. ~ Roger Ebert

You can't guide someone into adulthood. The experiences are unique to each person. Deanna Troi ~ Star Trek: The Next Generation Episode Guide Team

A lot of people who read my novel 'Smog City' ask me why I never killed off either of the two main characters. To be honest, it's because I've given them life. Not literally of course, but since I spent so much time developing and creating my characters, they've ended up with complex personalities, in fact they're almost sentient in a way, and to write them off as dead would be like killing a close friend to me. ~ Rebecca McNutt

Two things I do well in books are sex and violence, but I don't want gratuitous sex or violence. The sex and violence are only as graphic as need be. And never included unless it furthers the plot or character development. ~ Laurell K. Hamilton

So we all know the cliché characters: the Irish cop, the prostitute with a heart of gold, the writer with a drinking problem, and so forth. Clichés often exist for a reason, of course, and sometimes it's okay to use a tried and true character. But not always. Populate your stories with only stock characters and there won't be any reason to read your tales over anyone else's. ~ Craig Hart

Character development is vital when writing a strong story. Weak characters make for weak stories. ~ Beem Weeks

If one abandons their principles when tested by struggle, they were never true principles but advertisements for character they never possessed. ~ Tiffany Madison

There've been many a season where I couldn't get work, and I think that you learn character development and you learn how to really want what you do in life when you can't really do it. ~ Anthony Michael Hall

Everyone cites [Charles Schulz], but it's with good reason. He taught me timing, tone, character development, practically everything. ~ Stephan Pastis

The magic of a story is when the characters come to life, and defy our expectation. ~ H.S. Crow

Meggie dropped to her knees, scrambling frantically to collect the miniature clothes before more damage was done them, then she began picking among the grass blades where she thought the pearls might have fallen. Her tears were blinding her, the grief in her heart new, for until now she had never owned anything worth grieving for. ~ Colleen McCullough

I'm tired of being helpless. ~ Sui Ishida

Most of my films have a lot of character development and exploration, whereas in most horror movies the characters are just cardboard. ~ Larry Cohen

An authentic and genuine life grows like a sturdy tree. And like a tree, it grows slowly. Every time you make a different and better decision, it grows a little. Every time you choose to do the right thing, even when nobody would find out otherwise, it grows a little. Every time you act with compassion, relinquish your right to strike back, take a courageous stand, admit fault or accept responsibility, it grows a little. ~ Steve Goodier

When I use people I know, all of my instincts seem to go dead, and if I'm getting anywhere near myself then I can't do it. It's actually a real weakness! I hate writing personal essays, I don't think I'm especially good at it. I like just encountering [my characters], discovering them. I love the escape of just being surrounded by all these people who are nothing like people I know. But I don't find it hard to be in the middle of a different life, with a different set of habits and way of thinking and talking. That seems to come easily to me. ~ Jennifer Egan

Character, simply stated, is doing what you say you're going to do. ~ Hyrum W. Smith

Books ... are like lobster shells, we surround ourselves with 'em, then we grow out of 'em and leave 'em behind, as evidence of our earlier stages of development. ~ Dorothy L. Sayers

In horror, character development is often pushed aside in favor of the shock value. The best genre movies to me are movies like The Shining. You had a connection to the characters in that film. ~ Joshua Leonard

Maybe who God wants me to be is the type of person born from sorrows. Maybe a life of hardships is the only way of becoming that remarkable person. ~ Richelle E. Goodrich

Beauty without a character is a waste. ~ Luffina Lourduraj

Filmmaking in general is about feeling and not about theory. You need to know a lot of rules about filmmaking: character development, grammar, and all these thing, but then you use it instinctively. I ask myself this question all the time. I have no solid theory, I just do what I feel is right. ~ Hany Abu-Assad

When sex is necessary for the plot of a book, or a character development, then I don't shy away from it. Why should I? ~ Laurell K. Hamilton

Personally, my taste is towards development of a character, as well as the resolution of a story plot. I like to find both, if I can. ~ Alexis Denisof

There's more time spent on teaching kids about recycling than on character development in the American schools. ~ Dennis Prager

I'm working on a project called Lemons, produced by Killer Films. The director has a great perspective on character development. ~ Nia Long

When I play a game, I want to play, not necessarily laugh. If you try to make me laugh at the expense of interactivity, then you've just created another funny game that isn't very fun. The videogame medium itself is a terrible place for complicated humor, drama, and character development. ~ Doug TenNapel

To compose our character is our duty, not to compose books, and to win, not battles and provinces, but order and tranquility in our conduct. Our great and glorious masterpiece is to live appropriately. All other things, ruling, hoarding, building, are only little appendages and props, at most. ~ Michel De Montaigne

Superman and Spiderman don't wear your costume and character, they have their own costume and character ~ 'SON Of GOD' P.S.Jagadeesh Kumar

It was like living with a bad action movie, all excitement and motion, and no character development. ~ Christina Dodd

Stand-up is just me trying to be as funny as possible in the most concentrated hour with me standing on stage with no storyline, no plot line, and no character development. ~ Jim Jefferies

The years in captivity fuels character development ~ Lailah Gifty Akita

What is the true test of character unless it be its progressive development in the bustle and turmoil, in the action and reaction of daily life. ~ Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Writing a children's book means you cannot spin out long narratives or have complex character development. ~ Norman Macleod

Pace, like everything else in writing, involves a trade-off. If you're not offering the reader a lot of action to keep her interested, you must offer something else in its stead. Slow pace is ideal for complex character development, detailed description, and nuances of style. ~ Nancy Kress

Because I know that my character is developed from my own acts and thoughts, I will guard with care all that goes into its development. ~ Napoleon Hill

I don't consider roles like in 'Die Hard' what I do. This is like a hobby. It's fun. I had a good time. And I love being in a movie that people actually go see. But it's about things getting blown up. It's not about great character development. ~ Bonnie Bedelia

It is hardly necessary to stress the fact that the ability to love as an act of giving depends on the character development of the person. It presupposes the attainment of a predominantly productive orientation; in this orientation the person has overcome dependency, narcissistic omnipotence, the wish to exploit others, or to hoard, and has acquired faith in his own human powers, courage to rely on his powers in the attainment of his goals. To the degree that these qualities are lacking, he is afraid of giving himself - hence of loving. ~ Erich Fromm

Most horror films fail to scare me. I think 'The Ring' plays more as a psychological thriller. It's smarter, there's more character development and some of the themes explored go a little deeper. ~ Martin Henderson

The quality of your friends says alot about your character. ~ Naide P Obiang

Shh," I interrupted him. "Hold on a second. I think I'm having an epiphany here. ~ Stephenie Meyer

A relationship built on lies and trickery will not last; only truthfulness can uphold a relationship ~ Idowu Koyenikan

Fateful encounters with a cruel world reveal our character. No human is immune from heartbreaking loss. Regardless of our socioeconomic status, eventually everybody shall suffer a grievous personal loss, a body blow that inflicts pain of inexpressible magnitude. ~ Kilroy J. Oldster

I'm not gonna end my life on that! I'm not gonna be a fugitive! I'm not gonna let whoever cross over myself! I'm not going let the circumstances destroy me!" Emma promised in front of the heavens, feeling stronger than ever before. ~ Sahara Sanders