Quotes and Sayings about Character
"I'm one of those writers who, when writing, believes she's god-and that she hasn't bestowed free will on any of her characters. In that sense there are no surprises in any of my books."
- Lynn Abbey
(Related: God, Books, Free will, Sense, Surprises, Writers, Writing)
"The highest qualities of character... must be earned."
- Lyman Abbott
(Related: Character)
"I have been working up until recently with Neil Simon, who has been adapting the character to me."
- Paula Abdul
(Related: Character)
"Whenever there were parties, I wasn't invited because I began to be like that character. In a way, that contributed to the success of the performance."
- F. Murray Abraham
(Related: Success, Character, Performance)
"When you have to get into the character each morning, give it your voice, your face, it was torture."
- Victoria Abril
(Related: Character, Voice)
"You can fake your age or mask it, but the passion that moves the characters has to be real."
- Victoria Abril
(Related: Age, Passion)
"How I work is I work from of very character-driven place. And I trust the writers."
- Amy Adams
(Related: Trust, Work, Character, Writers)
"Because power corrupts, society's demands for moral authority and character increase as the importance of the position increases."
- John Adams
(Related: Power, Society, Character, Authority, Importance)
"It is in the character of very few men to honor without envy a friend who has prospered."
- Aeschylus
(Related: Men, Friend, Character, Envy, Honor)
"Don't let your special character and values, the secret that you know and no one else does, the truth - don't let that get swallowed up by the great chewing complacency."
- Aesop
(Related: Truth, Character, Values)
"I didn't have to audition. That's common, but it had never happened to me before. Normally, I hate auditioning. I need to stew and think... let the character develop and grow inside me."
- Casey Affleck
(Related: Character, Hate)
"If I stunk for some reason, you can always blame it on the character."
- Danny Aiello
(Related: Character, Blame, Reason)
"For the third season, we do a sit around on one episode where we were in character and then we commented on one episode just being ourselves, so - not really. I was comfortable, though. I wasn't nervous."
- Carlos Alazraqui
(Related: Character, Being)
"It's not like my old self - I'm not in character anymore, I'm me. I'm not hiding behind that anymore."
- Damon Albarn
(Related: Character, Old, Self)
"Your source material is the people you know, not those you don't know, but every character is an extension of the author's own personality."
- Edward Albee
(Related: People, Character, Personality)
"She had a womanly instinct that clothes possess an influence more powerful over many than the worth of character or the magic of manners."
- Louisa May Alcott
(Related: Character, Clothes, Influence, Instinct, Magic, Manners, Worth)
"It makes it fun. When an actor plays a character, you want what that character wants. Otherwise it doesn't look authentic. So I really want to defeat Jimmy - I mean Jimmy as the character."
- Alan Alda
(Related: Character, Actor, Defeat, Fun, Want)
"The same characters that keep reappearing, bigger than life, find their own integrity in doing what they do the way they do it, even if it causes their own deaths."
- Robert Aldrich
(Related: Life, Causes, Integrity)
"The character and fight against fascism moved centre stage when, in 1936, Franco attempted to overthrow by force the Popular Front Government of Republican Spain."
- Bill Alexander
(Related: Government, Character, Fascism, Fight, Force, Popular, Republican, Spain)
"I'm always more motivated by the pain of a funny character than by what makes him funny."
- Jason Alexander
(Related: Funny, Character, Pain)
"It is a rare American who does not have some story about how music has made our lives richer and more interesting, how it has changed our moods, brought out the best in our character and even sometimes helped us earn a living."
- Lamar Alexander
(Related: Music, Character, American, Living, Moods)
"I really love the process, with stage, of rehearsal, you get to create a character, and you have a beginning, a middle, and an end of story. And in television, you don't."
- Sasha Alexander
(Related: Love, Character, Beginning, End, Television)
"The law of harvest is to reap more than you sow. Sow an act, and you reap a habit. Sow a habit and you reap a character. Sow a character and you reap a destiny."
- James Allen
(Related: Character, Habit, Destiny, Harvest, Law)
"Our system provides for a winner to take office on January 20th, and he is expected to take command of the ship of state. Failure to do so, characterized by hesitation and indecision, will harm the national interest."
- Richard V. Allen
(Related: Failure, Harm, Hesitation, Indecision, Interest, Office, State, Will)
"I prefer the rather old and battered, things with character, to the brand new."
- Rick Allen
(Related: Character, Old)
"While I relish our warm months, winter forms our character and brings out our best."
- Tom Allen
(Related: Character, Months, Winter)
"Heart is what drives us and determines our fate. That is what I need for my characters in my books: a passionate heart. I need mavericks, dissidents, adventurers, outsiders and rebels, who ask questions, bend the rules and take risks."
- Isabel Allende
(Related: Heart, Fate, Questions, Rules)
"I tell my students you have an absolute right to write about people you know and love. You do. But the kicker is you have a responsibility to make the characters large enough that you will not have sinned against them."
- Dorothy Allison
(Related: Love, People, Responsibility, Right, Students, Will)
"Washington's character was rock solid. He came to stand for the new nation and its republican virtues, which was why he became our first President by unanimous choice."
- Stephen Ambrose
(Related: Character, Choice, First, Nation, President, Republican, Washington)
"Laziness has become the chief characteristic of journalism, displacing incompetence."
- Kingsley Amis
(Related: Incompetence, Journalism, Laziness)
"They killed my character off and as God would have it, just when they told me I would never work again, I got cast in a little program called Roots, and as they would say, the rest is history."
- John Amos
(Related: History, Work, God, Character, Rest)
"Always, your work is the same: You have to tell a story, you have to make a character. It doesn't matter if there are thousands of dollars, millions behind it, or if there is nothing."
- Elena Anaya
(Related: Work, Character, Nothing)
"I am more spontaneous than my character."
- Gillian Anderson
(Related: Character)
"To re-live these characters would be wonderful, because I know when the show ends it will be huge mourning process."
- Gillian Anderson
(Related: Mourning, Will)
"The thing that's characteristic of my performance is that I literally do drag the whole studio onto the stage."
- Laurie Anderson
(Related: Performance)
"None of us is responsible for the complexion of his skin. This fact of nature offers no clue to the character or quality of the person underneath."
- Marian Anderson
(Related: Nature, Quality, Character, Fact, Skin)
"You have to suspend disbelief a little bit to buy into your situation and to the story and to how the character will react. You have to tweak your credibility a little bit, is basically what it comes down to."
- Richard Dean Anderson
(Related: Character, Credibility, Will)
"Bad things do happen; how I respond to them defines my character and the quality of my life. I can choose to sit in perpetual sadness, immobilized by the gravity of my loss, or I can choose to rise from the pain and treasure the most precious gift I have - life itself."
- Walter Anderson
(Related: Life, Quality, Character, Gravity, Loss, Pain, Sadness, Treasure)
"The talent for discovering the unique and marketable characteristics of a product and service is a designer's most valuable asset."
- Primo Angeli
(Related: Talent, Service)
"The fact that the adult American Negro female emerges a formidable character is often met with amazement, distaste and even belligerance. It is seldom accepted as an inevitable outcome of the struggle won by survivors, and deserves respect if not enthusiastic acceptance."
- Maya Angelou
(Related: Character, Acceptance, American, Fact, Respect, Struggle)
"My father is a man of impeccable character who has worked tirelessly for the United Nations for many years. His integrity is beyond reproach."
- Kojo Annan
(Related: Father, Character, Integrity, Man, Nations, United, Years)
"I didn't want to be greedy. It's a mark of bad character and I always believed that pigs go the slaughterhouse."
- Walter Annenberg
(Related: Character, Want)
"The test of character is having the ability to meet challenges."
- Walter Annenberg
(Related: Character, Ability)
"I'm trying to learn to smoke, which is rather weird when everyone is trying to stop. I'm not a smoker. But my character only smokes as an affectation."
- Francesca Annis
(Related: Character, Affectation, Trying)
"No novel is a clone of any preceding one, though with a background cast of characters and things that has grown to thousands, there are many familiar aspects."
- Piers Anthony
"It's hard being a hostage in somebody else's mouth - or a character in somebody else's novel."
- David Antin
(Related: Character, Being)
"Poverty is the schoolmaster of character."
- Antiphanes
(Related: Character, Poverty)
"You know what I would like to do: make a film with actors standing in empty space so that the spectator would have to imagine the background of the characters."
- Michelangelo Antonioni
(Related: Actors, Film, Space)
"I mean simply to say that I want my characters to suggest the background in themselves, even when it is not visible. I want them to be so powerfully realized that we cannot imagine them apart from their physical and social context even when we see them in empty space."
- Michelangelo Antonioni
(Related: Space, Want)
"All the characters in my films are fighting these problems, needing freedom, trying to find a way to cut themselves loose, but failing to rid themselves of conscience, a sense of sin, the whole bag of tricks."
- Michelangelo Antonioni
(Related: Conscience, Fighting, Freedom, Problems, Sense, Sin, Trying)
"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
(Related: Humor, Heart)
"Once you've established where you are, you go to the character and elaborate on expressions and action."
- Sergio Aragones
(Related: Action, Character)
"Sometimes, you start with the drawing and then the gag comes to you in the middle of it. That is when you start working on the solution of the gag, which is composition, placing, equilibrium, and character design."
- Sergio Aragones
(Related: Design, Character, Solution)
"In each of my characters there is a little of me. Not strictly autobiographical but a little piece of my soul."
- Dario Argento
(Related: Soul)
"Even among the married, sexual satisfaction must not be sought in a way which disregards man's character as a person and degrades him to the animal level."
- Francis Arinze
(Related: Character, Man, Satisfaction)
"Characteristics of a popular politician: a horrible voice, bad breeding, and a vulgar manner."
- Aristophanes
(Related: Breeding, Popular, Voice)
"What the statesman is most anxious to produce is a certain moral character in his fellow citizens, namely a disposition to virtue and the performance of virtuous actions."
- Aristotle
(Related: Character, Performance, Virtue, Actions)
"Character may almost be called the most effective means of persuasion."
- Aristotle
(Related: Character, May, Persuasion)
"When two characters or two actresses are together for a while there is bound to be chemistry developing."
- Joan Van Ark
"Yeah, you know, within the context of TV families, these are pretty unsavory characters."
- Will Arnett
(Related: Pretty)
"Not a having and a resting, but a growing and becoming, is the character of perfection as culture conceives it."
- Matthew Arnold
(Related: Character, Culture, Perfection)
"Casting ethnic characters is a very hard thing to do, but it's important. It's also interesting."
- Darren Aronofsky
"I'd like to do a lot of different stuff. I think it's important as a creative person to keep challenging yourself and keep doing new stuff. If you end up trying to repeat yourself it's death. It just becomes boring and takes the passion out of it. You gotta find stories and characters that you really want to hang out with."
- Darren Aronofsky
(Related: Death, End, Passion, Trying, Want)
"In 1963 and later papers, I pointed out that the special market characteristics of medical care and medical insurance could be explained by reference to differences in information among the parties involved."
- Kenneth Joseph Arrow
(Related: Medical, Care, Information)
"I played a lot of character parts in school."
- Matthew Ashford
(Related: Character, School)
"After doing this, going away, trying other things and working on other shows, this character, and working within Days of Our Lives, has been one of the most enjoyable experiences in my career."
- Matthew Ashford
(Related: Character, Career, Trying)
"When I draw a character, very often as I'm doing a face, my face mirrors the expression."
- Matthew Ashford
(Related: Character, Expression)
"The fact is, it was a big show. We were a part of that show. Everybody watches for different reasons. There were some people who were tuning in that day to see what was going on with other characters."
- Matthew Ashford
(Related: People, Day, Fact)
"It ended up being a very good thing, because they finally started writing for the character, and I realized that you have to go to work with a purpose. I learned from the experience and then moved on."
- Matthew Ashford
(Related: Experience, Work, Character, Purpose, Being, Writing)
"The genre of fantasy is about magic and occult characters."
- Shawn Ashmore
(Related: Fantasy, Magic)
"I'm 25, so I've already gone through what my character Ged goes through, though it's on a general scale because I haven't studied at a wizard's school."
- Shawn Ashmore
(Related: Character, School)
"I think it is important that you care about the characters, and you are not just waiting for the next action sequence but have a vested interested in what happens to them."
- Shawn Ashmore
(Related: Action, Care, Waiting)
"Playing a character who's dealing not only with a superpower but having a normal relationship is easy to associate with, because I feel that everyone has been through it."
- Shawn Ashmore
(Related: Character)
"Our first scene is sort of a reunion between the X-Men characters, which establishes everyone's relationship to one another, sort of like a recap for all those who have forgotten since the last movie."
- Shawn Ashmore
(Related: First)
"It is easier to influence strong than weak characters in life."
- Margot Asquith
(Related: Life, Influence)
"It's the difficulty we had with Mr. Bean, actually, when it went from TV to film. You certainly discover that you need to explain more about a character."
- Rowan Atkinson
(Related: Character, Difficulty, Film)
"When I was doing Bean more than I've done him in the last few years, I did strange things - like appearing on chat shows in character as Mr. Bean."
- Rowan Atkinson
(Related: Character, Years)
"I think the character does tend to suit an episodic thing, because what's fun about him is that he doesn't care about anyone else, and it's very difficult for a main character - a lead character - in a movie to not care about anybody else."
- Rowan Atkinson
(Related: Character, Care, Fun)
"I would return to the Blackadder character if the opportunity came up. I have no qualms about that at all."
- Rowan Atkinson
(Related: Opportunity, Character)
"And what's interesting about him as a comic character is that the custard pie hardly ever ends up on his face."
- Rowan Atkinson
(Related: Character)
"Costumes are the first impression that you have of the character before they open their mouth-it really does establish who they are."
- Colleen Atwood
(Related: Impression, Character, First, Open)
"The mask of the character was already written into the show, but I actually lobbied for a denser and more complete mask than they initially considered."
- Rene Auberjonois
(Related: Character)
"It always takes awhile to find out who the characters are."
- Rene Auberjonois
"Beauty has a lot to do with character."
- Kevyn Aucoin
(Related: Beauty, Character)
"Every autobiography is concerned with two characters, a Don Quixote, the Ego, and a Sancho Panza, the Self."
- W. H. Auden
(Related: Autobiography, Ego, Self)
"I probably read 100 times more than I write, but that way when I move my characters through it, I know."
- Jean M. Auel
"I can move my characters through it easily, because I understand the background; I've really studied it."
- Jean M. Auel
"Such as are your habitual thoughts, such also will be the character of your mind; for the soul is dyed by the thoughts."
- Marcus Aurelius
(Related: Soul, Character, Thoughts, Mind, Will)
"Infelicity is an ill to which all acts are heir which have the general character of ritual or ceremonial, all conventional acts."
- J. L. Austin
(Related: Character, Heir, Ritual)
"People are always defining and re-defining music. My style of playing has been characterized as smooth jazz and acid jazz. I listen as I play; I'm not caught up in defining the type of music I play."
- Roy Ayers
(Related: Music, People, Jazz, Play, Style)
"I love to come in and play with a wig or glasses or clothes. I love using props. I'm from the Peter Sellers school of trying to prepare for the character."
- Dan Aykroyd
(Related: Love, Character, Clothes, Play, School, Trying)
"Most importantly, nothing has happened to change my conviction that freedom and the love of liberty remain the essential defining attributes of our national character as a people."
- Ibrahim Babangida
(Related: Change, Love, People, Character, Conviction, Freedom, Liberty, Nothing)
"The public character of every public servant is legitimate subject of discussion, and his fitness or unfitness for office may be fairly canvassed by any person."
- Charles Babbage
(Related: Fitness, Character, May, Office, Public)
"Property may be destroyed and money may lose its purchasing power; but, character, health, knowledge and good judgement will always be in demand under all conditions."
- Roger Babson
(Related: Money, Health, Power, Knowledge, Character, May, Property, Will)
"Our immigration system is a broken system that needs to be fixed. We need reform that provides hardworking people of good character with a real path towards citizenship."
- Joe Baca
(Related: People, Character, Citizenship, Needs, Reform)
"If you will practice being fictional for a while, you will understand that fictional characters are sometimes more real than people with bodies and heartbeats."
- Richard Bach
(Related: People, Being, Practice, Will)
"The characteristic of scientific progress is our knowing that we did not know."
- Gaston Bachelard
(Related: Progress)
"Of all virtues and dignities of the mind, goodness is the greatest, being the character of the Deity; and without it, man is a busy, mischievous, wretched thing."
- Francis Bacon
(Related: Character, Being, Goodness, Man, Mind)
"I'm always happier and a better actor when I can really lose myself in a character and become somebody else."
- Kevin Bacon
(Related: Character, Actor)
"An individual step in character training is to put responsibility on the individual."
- Robert Baden-Powell
(Related: Character, Responsibility, Training)
"Like at Halloween: I knew I'd arrived when I saw people dressing up on Halloween as my character."
- Jane Badler
(Related: People, Character)
"An influential member of parliament has not only to pay much money to become such, and to give time and labour, he has also to sacrifice his mind too - at least all the characteristics part of it that which is original and most his own."
- Walter Bagehot
(Related: Money, Time, Sacrifice, Mind, Parliament)
"By a great man, however, we mean a man who, because of his spiritual gifts, his character, and other qualities, deserves to be called great and who as a result earns the power to influence others."
- Fredrik Bajer
(Related: Power, Character, Gifts, Influence, Man, Result, Spiritual)
"When the drama attains a characterization which makes the play a revelation of human conduct and a dialogue which characterizes yet pleases for itself, we reach dramatic literature."
- George P. Baker
(Related: Drama, Literature, Play)
"In the best farce today we start with some absurd premise as to character or situation, but if the premises be once granted we move logically enough to the ending."
- George P. Baker
(Related: Character, Ending, Today)
"The instinct to impersonate produces the actor; the desire to provide pleasure by impersonations produces the playwright; the desire to provide this pleasure with adequate characterization and dialogue memorable in itself produces dramatic literature."
- George P. Baker
(Related: Actor, Desire, Instinct, Literature, Pleasure)
"I listen to them freely and with all the respect merited by their intelligence, their character, their knowledge, reserving always my incontestable right of criticism and censure."
- Mikhail Bakunin
(Related: Intelligence, Knowledge, Character, Censure, Criticism, Respect, Right)
"Industrialization based on machinery, already referred to as a characteristic of our age, is but one aspect of the revolution that is being wrought by technology."
- Emily Greene Balch
(Related: Technology, Age, Being, Revolution)
"A second characteristic of our time is the prevalence of nationalism. This is still spreading, affecting new communities, more peripheral regions and so-called backward peoples."
- Emily Greene Balch
(Related: Time, Nationalism)
"Character builds slowly, but it can be torn down within incredible swiftness."
- Faith Baldwin
(Related: Character)
"My hope is that people will be repulsed by the character's complete lack of ethics and obsession with consumerism - that's what I was saying about the difference between the character's message and the film's message."
- Christian Bale
(Related: People, Character, Hope, Difference, Ethics, Film, Obsession, Saying, Will)
"We are starting off with our own different characters and our own laws and everything, looking at Bruce Wayne and how he came to be the person that he was and how he comes to be this man that jumps around in the Bat suit."
- Christian Bale
(Related: Laws, Man)
"When it comes to films, people often don't differentiate between the message of a bad central character and the message of the film itself. They are two separate things."
- Christian Bale
(Related: People, Character, Film)
"I like the idea of movies having a magic element. How many times have you seen an actor in a movie who you know only as the character? It's wonderful, isn't it?"
- Christian Bale
(Related: Movies, Idea, Character, Actor, Magic)
"I don't think I'm like any of the characters I've played - they're all really far from who I am."
- Christian Bale
"But I learned that there's a certain character that can be built from embarrassing yourself endlessly. If you can sit happy with embarrassment, there's not much else that can really get to ya."
- Christian Bale
(Related: Character, Embarrassment)
"There are two ways to go about it. You can take a compass and draw a perfect circle and make two perfect eyes as neat as can be. Or you can do it freehand and have some fun with it. Like I did. Give it character."
- Harvey Ball
(Related: Character, Eyes, Fun)
"Education commences at the mother's knee, and every word spoken within hearsay of little children tends toward the formation of character."
- Hosea Ballou
(Related: Education, Mother, Character, Children, Word)
"Truth is not exciting enough to those who depend on the characters and lives of their neighbors for all their amusement."
- George Bancroft
(Related: Truth, Amusement, Neighbors)
"It's a character that I always found really likable. I'm fond of Zorro because he was a popular figure who worked for the people."
- Antonio Banderas
(Related: People, Character, Popular)
"I wouldn't like to be a character in one of my books!"
- Iain Banks
(Related: Character)
"Usually, it gets worse and worse as they downsize your character; mine just kept getting better."
- Christine Baranski
(Related: Character)
"The most characteristic mark of a great mind is to choose some one important object, and pursue it for life."
- Anna Letitia Barbauld
(Related: Life, Mind)
"Making cartoons means very hard work at every step of the way, but creating a successful cartoon character is the hardest work of all."
- Joseph Barbera
(Related: Work, Successful, Character, Cartoons, Hard work)
"Parents look at me like I'm somebody pretty important, and say, We were raised on your characters, and now we're enjoying them all over again with our children."
- Joseph Barbera
(Related: Children, Now, Parents, Pretty)
"What about Mickey Mouse? Disney tried very hard to make him a star. But Mickey Mouse is more of a symbol than a real character."
- Joseph Barbera
(Related: Character, Disney, Mouse, Symbol)
"I enjoy my job as long as I can create a character, otherwise it's boring."
- Javier Bardem
(Related: Character, Job)
"My initial response was to sue her for defamation of character, but then I realized that I had no character."
- Charles Barkley
(Related: Character)
"There was no difference between my characters and the life my readers were going to have to face."
- Carl Barks
(Related: Life, Difference)
"Character is better than ancestry, and personal conduct is of more importance than the highest."
- Thomas John Barnardo
(Related: Character, Ancestry, Importance)
"A lot of my work has to do with not allowing my characters to have an ego in a way that the stomach doesn't have an ego when it's wanting to throw up. It just does it."
- Matthew Barney
(Related: Work, Ego)
"Somebody like Mailer brings to that role everything that he stands for. The types of characters that I gravitate towards, the types of icons, tend to have a heavy physicality in that way."
- Matthew Barney
"The information encoded in your DNA determines your unique biological characteristics, such as sex, eye color, age and Social Security number."
- Dave Barry
(Related: Age, Sex, Eye, Information, Security)
"I would call it a comedy variety show. We have some people just doing straight standup. We usually try to have one musical act of sort. So its just people being funny in different ways, not just sketch, not just standup, not just characters, all of those things."
- Todd Barry
(Related: Funny, People, Act, Being, Comedy, Variety)
"I never act my characters - I am them."
- Drew Barrymore
(Related: Act)
"People realize that Salieri is not the man we saw in the Amadeus movie. That man had no talent. It was a great movie, but the Salieri character was a big fiction."
- Cecilia Bartoli
(Related: Talent, People, Character, Fiction, Man)
"During my eighty-seven years I have witnessed a whole succession of technological revolutions. But none of them has done away with the need for character in the individual or the ability to think."
- Bernard Baruch
(Related: Character, Ability, Years)
"I look for a role that hopefully I feel empathy with and that I can understand and love, but also that has that challenge for me to play - a different kind of role, a different type of character, a different time period."
- Kathy Bates
(Related: Time, Love, Character, Challenge, Empathy, Play)
"I try to always stretch myself to fit the characters that have been presented."
- Kathy Bates
"A nation is a totality of men united through community of fate into a community of character."
- Otto Bauer
(Related: Men, Character, Community, Fate, Nation, United)
"When you have to play a character that seems to be a relatively decent person and seems to be like yourself, I think the trick in that kind of character, so that you don't become a cliche, is to find where their weaknesses are."
- Jennifer Beals
(Related: Character, Play)
"What is their potential for evil; what is their potential for wickedness? That's the only time that those characters become interesting to watch."
- Jennifer Beals
(Related: Time, Evil, Potential, Wickedness)
"Oftentimes what happens is that the writer understands one character, but they don't understand the other one, and the other one ends up not being written as well."
- Jennifer Beals
(Related: Character, Being, Writer)
"There's a wealth of literature out there which, hopefully, will be, you know, exploded in the future, and I personally find it very rewarding to be involved with classic storytelling, and sort of legendary characters."
- Sean Bean
(Related: Wealth, Future, Literature, Will)
"Sharpe is my favorite role of all that I've played. He's a very complex character. He knows that he's a good soldier, but he will always have to fight the prejudice of aristocratic officers because of his rough working-class upbringing. On the battlefield, he's full of confidence - but off it, he is unsure, a bit shy and ill at ease."
- Sean Bean
(Related: Character, Confidence, Favorite, Fight, Prejudice, Will)
"If you have a very good concept of your character, you can snap into it."
- Sean Bean
(Related: Character)
"I sort of leave the character at the end of the day. I don't carry anything around with me - no excess baggage or unnecessary thoughts. I think it's too exhausting to do that. To put things into perspective - your work is your work, and your leisure time is something else."
- Sean Bean
(Related: Time, Work, Character, Thoughts, Day, End, Excess, Leisure, Perspective)
"006 was such an interesting character and the film really explored his friendship with Bond and how it all went wrong, so it was a very personal journey for both characters."
- Sean Bean
(Related: Friendship, Character, Film, Journey, Wrong)
"I think that you always have something left, that you take something of the character with you."
- Sean Bean
(Related: Character)
"I think almost always that what gets me going with a story is the atmosphere, the visual imagery, and then I people it with characters, not the other way around."
- Ann Beattie
(Related: People)
"Quite often my narrator or protagonist may be a man, but I'm not sure he's the more interesting character, or if the more complex character isn't the woman."
- Ann Beattie
(Related: Character, Man, May, Woman)
"It's a hard thing to age a character because you can't really suddenly give someone gray hair."
- Alison Bechdel
(Related: Age, Character, Hair)
"I hope that I can get people to read it without having to change it. Especially now that the strip has more different kinds of characters. It's really not all lesbians any more."
- Alison Bechdel
(Related: Change, People, Hope, Now)
"Let me go over this again on the reclaiming the civil rights movement. People of faith that believe that you have an equal right to justice - that is the essence. And if it's not the essence, then we've been sold a pack of lies. The essence is everyone deserves a shot - the content of character, not the color of skin."
- Glenn Beck
(Related: Faith, People, Character, Civil rights, Content, Justice, Lies, Skin)
"Men of genius are not quick judges of character. Deep thinking and high imagining blunt that trivial instinct by which you and I size people up."
- Max Beerbohm
(Related: Men, Genius, People, Character, Deep, Instinct, Judges, Quick, Thinking)
"I get letters from kids, teenagers and young girls who just want to be Mac. I've had quite a few people actually say that they're going to become a Marine or a JAG lawyer because of me... the character. I think that's pretty cool!"
- Catherine Bell
(Related: People, Character, Girls, Kids, Letters, Pretty, Teenagers, Want)
"But in action, one defies one's character."
- Daniel Bell
(Related: Action, Character)
"I've been very lucky in the characters I've chosen. Up until last year I was a nobody. I did jobs I booked because I needed to put food in my mouth."
- Kristen Bell
(Related: Food, Jobs)
"I have friends who wear Star Wars costumes and act like the characters all day. I may not be that deep into it, but there's something great about loving what you love and not caring if it's unpopular."
- Kristen Bell
(Related: Love, Act, Caring, Day, Deep, Friends, May)
"I've been very lucky in the characters I've chosen. Up until last year I was a nobody. I did jobs I booked because I needed to put food in my mouth."
- Kristen Bell
(Related: Food, Jobs)
"I have friends who wear Star Wars costumes and act like the characters all day. I may not be that deep into it, but there's something great about loving what you love and not caring if it's unpopular."
- Kristen Bell
(Related: Love, Act, Caring, Day, Deep, Friends, May)
"Because I was able to submerge myself into the character, I didn't have to go back and forth. You don't have to work hard to bring emotions. It all just comes naturally, you're there living it."
- Camilla Belle
(Related: Work, Character, Emotions, Living)
"By knowing your character so well you can't go wrong. All of us kind of fell into that."
- Camilla Belle
(Related: Character, Wrong)
"There is always one person on the set who has a lot of anxiety, an actor who is really intense and has to stay in character and holds himself away from the rest of us."
- Maria Bello
(Related: Character, Actor, Anxiety, Rest)
"Now, all the movies are for teenagers. It's very difficult for an actress to find really deep, beautiful characters to play."
- Monica Bellucci
(Related: Movies, Deep, Now, Play, Teenagers)
"It's the texture of New York that people miss by filming elsewhere. There are layers and layers of character - even in the pavement - that you can't get anywhere else. And the speed that the people move. It's so different from other places."
- Richard Benjamin
(Related: People, Character)
"The destructive character lives from the feeling, not that life is worth living, but that suicide is not worth the trouble."
- Walter Benjamin
(Related: Life, Character, Feeling, Living, Suicide, Trouble, Worth)
"The discipline you learn and character you build from setting and achieving a goal can be more valuable than the achievement of the goal itself."
- Bo Bennett
(Related: Achievement, Character, Discipline, Goal)
"Martial arts is not about fighting; it's about building character."
- Bo Bennett
(Related: Character, Building, Fighting)
"I think the qualities I look for in a girl I'd like to be my girlfriend would be the way Lindsay's character is before she becomes a plastic. Very real."
- Jonathan Bennett
(Related: Girlfriend, Character)
"It is our character that supports the promise of our future - far more than particular government programs or policies."
- William Bennett
(Related: Government, Character, Future, Promise)
"The formation of character in young people is educationally a different task from and a prior task to, the discussion of the great, difficult ethical controversies of the day."
- William Bennett
(Related: People, Character, Day)
"You treat characters like people you meet in life-friends or mentors."
- Wes Bentley
(Related: Life, People, Mentors)
"You don't realize how much a part of your character is part of yourself until you are no longer playing that character."
- Julie Benz
(Related: Character)
"If you're offered something, you're not really sure exactly what is that they saw in you that they think is the character so it's a little scary, I feel."
- Julie Benz
(Related: Character)
"Take characters that Nicholson or De Niro play: they're not always tough."
- Tom Berenger
"The Big Chill is one of those things that everybody can identify with. Between eight characters, they can pick somebody who's somewhat like them."
- Tom Berenger
"I like playing flawed characters, people who aren't perfect."
- Tom Berenger
(Related: People)
"It's not enough to hit the notes. There is no point in the singers just standing there and sounding wonderful if they're not connecting with the characters they are portraying."
- Bruce Beresford
"With a film, I do my best to understand the author's intentions and try to bring the characters to life."
- Bruce Beresford
(Related: Life, Film, Intentions)
"When the music and the characters are flawlessly synchronized, the opera develops an emotional force that movies and plays cannot match."
- Bruce Beresford
(Related: Movies, Music, Force, Opera)
"Modern thought has transferred the spectral character of Death to the notion of time itself. Time has become Death triumphant over all."
- John Berger
(Related: Death, Time, Thought, Character)
"We regard intelligence as man's main characteristic and we know that there is no superiority which intelligence cannot confer on us, no inferiority for which it cannot compensate."
- Henri Bergson
(Related: Intelligence, Inferiority, Superiority, Man)
"It is characteristic of science that the full explanations are often seized in their essence by the percipient scientist long in advance of any possible proof."
- John Desmond Bernal
(Related: Science, Explanations, Proof)
"Once the curtain is raised, the actor is ceases to belong to himself. He belongs to his character, to his author, to his public. He must do the impossible to identify himself with the first, not to betray the second, and not to disappoint the third."
- Sarah Bernhardt
(Related: Character, Actor, First, Public)
"I don't know why, but I respond well to tortured characters."
- Halle Berry
"It is very hard to separate one's self from a character. Sometimes the people closest to me have to be very understanding."
- Halle Berry
(Related: People, Character, Self, Understanding)
"Yeah, it's fun to be somebody you're not, to bring a character to life."
- Michael Berryman
(Related: Life, Character, Fun)
"The true worth of a race must be measured by the character of its womanhood."
- Mary Mcleod Bethune
(Related: Character, Race, Worth)
"I grew up below the poverty line; I didn't have as much as other people did. I think it made me stronger as a person, it built my character. Now I have a 4.0 grade point average and I want to go to college, and just become a better person."
- Justin Bieber
(Related: People, Character, College, Now, Poverty, Want)
"Trial. A formal inquiry designed to prove and put upon record the blameless characters of judges, advocates and jurors."
- Ambrose Bierce
(Related: Judges)
"Character and emotionality don't always have to be relegated to quieter, more simple constructs."
- Kathryn Bigelow
(Related: Character)
"In order for American Pie to have worked, you have to have a character who, even while he is humping a pie, the audience still likes."
- Jason Biggs
(Related: Character, American, Order)
"But because it was able to balance that kind of humor with a sweet story and characters you really rooted for and also got across the girls' point of view, I've heard nothing but great things from younger and older females as well."
- Jason Biggs
(Related: Humor, Balance, Girls, Nothing)
"I like to think what I bring to the table is kind of a sympathetic and endearing quality, even while I'm playing outcasts or characters that end up in outlandish situations."
- Jason Biggs
(Related: Quality, End, Outcasts)
"Wild Bill was a strange character. In person he was about six feet and one inch in height. He was a Plains-man in every sense of the word."
- Buffalo Bill
(Related: Character, Feet, Sense, Word)
"But the West of the old times, with its strong characters, its stern battles and its tremendous stretches of loneliness, can never be blotted from my mind."
- Buffalo Bill
(Related: Loneliness, Mind, Old)
"General Custer was a close observer and student of personal character."
- Buffalo Bill
(Related: Character)
"Before I thought there was a common denominator between my films - as if all my characters were sisters - but I'm not so sure now."
- Juliette Binoche
(Related: Thought, Now, Sisters)
"I sometimes feel like I could do another job. Anything. Maybe because as an actress you're playing different characters, everything feels possible."
- Juliette Binoche
(Related: Job)
"Movies are open doors, and at every door, I change character and life."
- Juliette Binoche
(Related: Change, Life, Movies, Character, Open)
"I've never thought of my characters as being sad. On the contrary, they are full of life. They didn't choose tragedy. Tragedy chose them."
- Juliette Binoche
(Related: Life, Thought, Being, Tragedy)
"Our cultural diversity has most certainly shaped our national character."
- Julie Bishop
(Related: Character, Diversity)
"Politics ruins the character."
- Otto von Bismarck
(Related: Politics, Character)
"Character contributes to beauty. It fortifies a woman as her youth fades. A mode of conduct, a standard of courage, discipline, fortitude, and integrity can do a great deal to make a woman beautiful."
- Jacqueline Bisset
(Related: Beauty, Character, Courage, Discipline, Integrity, Woman, Youth)
"We all lose our looks eventually. Better develop your character and interest in life."
- Jacqueline Bisset
(Related: Life, Character, Interest)
"Not everyone likes watching rushes, but it makes me work harder, and I don't feel I am watching myself, but watching the progression of the character."
- Jacqueline Bisset
(Related: Work, Character)
"At first I was always cast as the girlfriend. It was a long time before I got to play characters who were people."
- Jacqueline Bisset
(Related: Time, People, Girlfriend, First, Play)
"Money is always on its way somewhere. What you do with it while it is in your keeping and the direction you send it in say much about you. Your treatment of and respect for money, how you make it, and how you spend it, reflect your character."
- Gary Ryan Blair
(Related: Money, Character, Direction, Respect, Treatment)
"It's the same as any role and I find that you can't lump characters together; because they all have different life experiences, different reasons for being the way they are."
- Brenda Blethyn
(Related: Life, Being)
"My whole career has been fulfilling my childhood fantasies, playing characters that are larger than life, getting to play a knight, an elf, a prince, and a soldier."
- Orlando Bloom
(Related: Life, Career, Childhood, Knight, Play)
"A big part of what I wanted to do with this character was go from when I was a boy and try and develop into a man, really try and play him as a man who is on this search, on a journey of personal, spiritual, political, social discovery."
- Orlando Bloom
(Related: Character, Discovery, Journey, Man, Play, Spiritual)
"I remember one time that I was filming a scene in whych my character rides through Troy on a chariot. I just looked around at this incredible set thinking 'This is the life'."
- Orlando Bloom
(Related: Time, Life, Character, Thinking)
"Yeah, I mean the material, directors, the other cast, and if you think you can do something with the character then you do it and go from there. I am looking forward to doing some smaller movies."
- Orlando Bloom
(Related: Movies, Character)
"The role of an actor is to make every character believable."
- Orlando Bloom
(Related: Character, Actor)
"We started getting the script to different people and we were in the business of trying to fund it so we could get it off and running, and all the characters and sets designed and everything."
- Don Bluth
(Related: Business, People, Running, Trying)
"Basically the children who watch it just see the little characters they love, and so they're not discerning about whether it looks great or it's a great story or anything."
- Don Bluth
(Related: Love, Children)
"If you look at the game and everything, it's not quite like looking at an animated film, because that's total character. This, this is really movement, but it's got funny little things if you look for the humor. They're actually getting to the character."
- Don Bluth
(Related: Funny, Humor, Character, Film)
"In other words, we are interested in the anatomical and mental characteristics of men living under the same biological, geographical, and social environment, and as determined by their past."
- Franz Boas
(Related: Men, Environment, Living, Past, Words)
"We do not discuss the anatomical, physiological, and mental characteristics of man considered as an individual; but we are interested in the diversity of these traits in groups of men found in different geographical areas and in different social classes."
- Franz Boas
(Related: Men, Diversity, Man)
"Slater's a big star and he's been in the business a long time. He's always in a good mood and easygoing but he takes his character very seriously."
- Uwe Boll
(Related: Business, Time, Character)
"Take the hardcore gamers. The characters are way more real in the world of hardcore gamers who have played the game for hundreds of hours. They have the movie in their heads, they've built it on their own. These guys are always very disappointed in the movies."
- Uwe Boll
(Related: Movies, World)
"So if you want to have a great video game-based movie you have to keep the mood of the game, use the normal character setup - but you have to flesh out the story and provide more background for the characters."
- Uwe Boll
(Related: Character, Want)
"Great ambition is the passion of a great character. Those endowed with it may perform very good or very bad acts. All depends on the principles which direct them."
- Napoleon Bonaparte
(Related: Character, Ambition, May, Passion, Principles)
"We're getting rewarded. We don't give up on the play and we show some character at the same time, but there is a long way for us to get to where we want to be."
- Peter Bondra
(Related: Time, Character, Play, Want)
"It is the characteristic excellence of the strong man that he can bring momentous issues to the fore and make a decision about them. The weak are always forced to decide between alternatives they have not chosen themselves."
- Dietrich Bonhoeffer
(Related: Decision, Excellence, Man)
"I am positive that flexibility is a feminine characteristic."
- Emma Bonino
(Related: Positive, Flexibility)
"I think there are a lot more relationship scenes in my movies that people tend to overlook. A lot of scenes really feel real and are about the characters."
- Jan de Bont
(Related: Movies, People)
"I look at the story, I look at the idea and just try to think of it in terms of that whole body of myth and see where the characters fit in and what they ought to be doing-all those archetypes are there to play with."
- John Boorman
(Related: Idea, Body, Myth, Play)
"I have discovered that we may be in some degree whatever character we choose. Besides, practice forms a man to anything."
- James Boswell
(Related: Character, Man, May, Practice)
"Example has more followers than reason. We unconsciously imitate what pleases us, and approximate to the characters we most admire."
- Christian Nestell Bovee
(Related: Example, Followers, Reason)
"Writers seldom choose as friends those self-contained characters who are never in trouble, never unhappy or ill, never make mistakes and always count their change when it is handed to them."
- Catherine Drinker Bowen
(Related: Change, Friends, Mistakes, Self, Trouble, Writers)
"I became, and remain, my characters' close and intent watcher: their director, never. Their creator I cannot feel that I was, or am."
- Elizabeth Bowen
"I think every leading man wants to be a character actor, and every character actor wants to be a leading man."
- Bruce Boxleitner
(Related: Character, Actor, Leading, Man)
"And while I might not always agree with the viewpoint I have to portray, because I play a district attorney, as an actress I can always tell myself that my character is trying to take the moral high ground."
- Lara Flynn Boyle
(Related: Character, Play, Trying)
"Nor does the idea of a moral order asserting itself against attack or want of conformity answer in full to our feelings regarding the tragic character."
- Andrew Coyle Bradley
(Related: Feelings, Idea, Character, Conformity, Order, Want)
"In Shakespearean tragedy the main source of the convulsion which produces suffering and death is never good: good contributes to this convulsion only from its tragic implication with its opposite in one and the same character."
- Andrew Coyle Bradley
(Related: Death, Character, Suffering, Tragedy)
"The way I write is that I'll actually have a conversation out loud with myself. In a weird way, I just kind of get schizophrenic and play two characters."
- Zach Braff
(Related: Conversation, Play)
"We can bring to characters dark and bright sides that nobody even dreams about."
- Sonia Braga
(Related: Dreams)
"I like to cast actors I admire, one's that are talented. Each one will bring something new to the part. This play has been done thousands of times and now certain characters are too familiar."
- Kenneth Branagh
(Related: Actors, Now, Play, Will)
"One of the things that makes Hamlet unique among Shakespeare's characters is his courage to face up to the darker elements of his personality."
- Kenneth Branagh
(Related: Courage, Personality, Shakespeare)
"I put myself into character for my songs."
- Michelle Branch
(Related: Character, Songs)
"To me, the psychology behind the character is critical. So I work very hard to get into the mind of the man that I'm going to be playing, because number one, I want to understand why he's doing what he's doing. It's essential, it's absolutely essential."
- Andre Braugher
(Related: Work, Character, Man, Mind, Psychology, Want)
"My favorite roles usually have to do with the story, if it's a good story I usually enjoy doing the character."
- Beau Bridges
(Related: Character, Favorite)
"I like to try to make the characters I play be as human as possible."
- Beau Bridges
(Related: Play)
"What are the aspects of yourself that line up with the character? You magnify those, and the ones that don't match up you kind of kick to the curb."
- Jeff Bridges
(Related: Character)
"For four years doing that same character all the time kind of bothered me. Butit opened up a lot of doors."
- Lloyd Bridges
(Related: Time, Character, Years)
"I love the part of Hector as it takes me back to playing eccentric parts. He is a funny character, which is fine by me as I've been playing for laughs for decades now! It's lovely to get a laugh; it's the best thing in the world!"
- Richard Briers
(Related: Funny, Love, Character)
"When I begin a book, I inevitably discover many things along the way, about the characters, their past histories and the political intrigues that surround them. This discovery process is vital, and I would not prejudice it by deciding too much in advance."
- David Brin
(Related: Discovery, Past, Prejudice)
"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
(Related: Feeling, Writing)
"My first duty to write a gripping yarn. Second is to convey credible characters who make you feel what they feel. Only third comes the idea."
- David Brin
(Related: Idea, Duty, First)
"The only time in my career prior to that I played an evil character was in 'The Twilight Zone'."
- Morgan Brittany
(Related: Time, Character, Career, Evil, Twilight, Zone)
"I thought I would keep the first name Susan and change the last name but I picked up this book and as I opened it the lead character in it was called Morgan Brittany."
- Morgan Brittany
(Related: Change, Thought, Character, First, Name)
"I probably wouldn't make a good accountant. I don't even understand what my accountant tells me. But the character is a sort of exaggerated version of me, he's a little more frightened than I am, everything seems so much bigger to him than it does to me."
- Matthew Broderick
(Related: Character)
"Show me a character whose life arouses my curiosity, and my flesh begins crawling with suspense."
- Fawn M. Brodie
(Related: Life, Character, Curiosity, Suspense)
"When you cover politics, you realize that knowing how to talk about character matters more and more. The way we hold ideas is more important than the ideas."
- David Brooks
(Related: Politics, Ideas, Character, Talk)
"Highly educated young people are tutored, taught and monitored in all aspects of their lives, except the most important, which is character building. When it comes to this, most universities leave them alone."
- David Brooks
(Related: People, Character, Building)
"I've done it with Broadcast News-where there was no finish line, there was no agenda that I had to move all the characters to this point, that I was sort of open to what happens."
- James L. Brooks
(Related: News, Open)
"Every human being has hundreds of separate people living under his skin. The talent of a writer is his ability to give them their separate names, identities, personalities and have them relate to other characters living with him."
- Mel Brooks
(Related: Talent, People, Ability, Being, Living, Names, Skin, Writer)
"Character may be manifested in the great moments, but it is made in the small ones."
- Phillips Brooks
(Related: Character, May, Moments)
"Testing of self is a regular part of our own lives, so it seems natural to make it a part of the lives of my characters, as well, albeit on a much different level."
- Terry Brooks
(Related: Self, Testing)
"Acting allows me to explore new worlds, to discover characters by delving into their lives, and ultimately to become someone else entirely."
- Pierce Brosnan
(Related: Acting)
"Sports do not build character. They reveal it."
- Heywood Broun
(Related: Sports, Character)
"The ability to make love frivolously is the chief characteristic which distinguishes human beings from beasts."
- Heywood Broun
(Related: Love, Ability)
"I think it's a short story writer's duty, as well as writing well about emotions and characters, to write story."
- Eric Brown
(Related: Duty, Emotions, Writer, Writing)
"Our character is what we do when we think no one is looking."
- H. Jackson Brown, Jr.
(Related: Character)
"There are mystically in our faces certain characters which carry in them the motto of our souls, wherein he that cannot read A, B, C may read our natures."
- Thomas Browne
(Related: Faces, May)
"In the perception of the incongruous stimuli, the recognition process is temporarily thwarted and exhibits characteristics which are generally not observable in the recognition of more conventional stimuli."
- Jerome Bruner
(Related: Perception)
"For example, I like using strong Greek and Roman Renaissance characters as part of my series."
- Frank Bruno
(Related: Example)
"From my sketch files I'll find a pose that shows the emotion behind a particular character's story."
- Frank Bruno
(Related: Character, Emotion)
"It is fortunate to be of high birth, but it is no less so to be of such character that people do not care to know whether you are or are not."
- Jean de la Bruyere
(Related: People, Character, Care)
"It's motive alone which gives character to the actions of men."
- Jean de la Bruyere
(Related: Men, Character, Actions, Motive)
"Show class, have pride, and display character. If you do, winning takes care of itself."
- Paul Bryant
(Related: Character, Winning, Care, Class, Pride)
"Obviously you have to have talent in order to play so you can't overlook that, but we won't overlook the character issue when it comes to talent because if they have talent and they don't have character, it's going to be very difficult to coach that person."
- Tim Buckley
(Related: Talent, Character, Coach, Order, Play)
"Places I've lived since then had to have some kind of uniqueness and character about them. And logically Key West, and then Down Island. So, all of that stuff sort of had it's roots in New Orleans and went crazy."
- Jimmy Buffett
(Related: Character, Key, Uniqueness)
"There seems to be some perverse human characteristic that likes to make easy things difficult."
- Warren Buffett
"The main thing in acting is honesty, to feel the humanity and get to the essence of the character. You can't put anything into a character that you haven't got within you."
- Genevieve Bujold
(Related: Character, Honesty, Acting, Humanity)
"Then there's going to be another project I am involved with, in fact, I'm going back to film it next week. It's a game for the Internet called Advance Warriors, and my character is Max, who is blind, but he has special powers. It will be a new game played on the Internet."
- Jeremy Bulloch
(Related: Character, Blind, Fact, Film, Internet, Project, Will)
"I have agreed to lend my voice to Nature's Guard, an animated series which hopefully will go into production in the near future. The characters are all animals. My voice will be for a character named Longtail."
- Jeremy Bulloch
(Related: Nature, Character, Animals, Future, Production, Voice, Will)
"No author ever drew a character consistent to human nature, but he was forced to ascribe to it many inconsistencies."
- Edward G. Bulwer-Lytton
(Related: Nature, Character, Human nature)
"Power is so characteristically calm, that calmness in itself has the aspect of strength."
- Edward G. Bulwer-Lytton
(Related: Power, Strength)
"There's a button that goes On and I'm On. And when I go On, there is almost no me; there is just a character who is doing all this."
- Gisele Bundchen
(Related: Character)
"In a government whose distinguishing characteristic should be a diffusion and equalization of its benefits and burdens the advantage of individuals will be augmented at the expense of the community at large."
- Martin Van Buren
(Related: Government, Benefits, Community, Will)
"Our Nation is in great need of young men and women of character to lead in every arena of our society."
- Michael Burgess
(Related: Men, Society, Women, Character, Nation)
"We not only interpret the character of events... we may also interpret our interpretations."
- Kenneth Burke
(Related: Character, Events, May)
"I cannot be much pleased without an appearance of truth; at least of possibility I wish the history to be natural though the sentiments are refined; and the characters to be probable, though their behaviour is excelling."
- Frances Burney
(Related: History, Truth, Possibility, Appearance)
"You come before me this morning with clean hands and clean collars. I want you to have clean tongues, clean manners, clean morals and clean characters."
- John Burns
(Related: Manners, Morals, Want)
"One of the things I really like about Ford's films is how there is always a focus on the way characters live, and not just the male heroes."
- Ken Burns
(Related: Focus, Heroes)
"Firmness in enduring and exertion is a character I always wish to possess. I have always despised the whining yelp of complaint and cowardly resolve."
- Robert Burns
(Related: Character, Complaint, Firmness)
"Let them cant about decorum, Who have characters to lose!"
- Robert Burns
"Hemingway was a prisoner of his style. No one can talk like the characters in Hemingway except the characters in Hemingway. His style in the wildest sense finally killed him."
- William Burroughs
(Related: Sense, Style, Talk)
"It's about avoiding reality through various escape routes that become addictions and lead to Hell. My character is addicted to television, chocolate, coffee, to her dream of her son, which has no basis in reality."
- Ellen Burstyn
(Related: Son, Dream, Character, Coffee, Hell, Reality, Television)
"I always start from scratch with a character - they're never based on anyone else. You get ideas of what people look like, and I'm a great people watcher. You can draw inspiration from people."
- Amanda Burton
(Related: People, Inspiration, Ideas, Character)
"Actually, I get a little say in what my character would or wouldn't do."
- Steve Burton
(Related: Character)
"I don't tend to think of these characters as losers. I like the struggles that people have, people who are feeling like they don't fit into society, because I still sort of feel that way."
- Steve Buscemi
(Related: Society, People, Feeling)
"Anything you write, even if you have to start over, is valuable. I let the story write itself through the characters."
- Steve Buscemi
"I talked with Quentin about where the character came from, and he told me Kansas City. I don't know how somebody talks from Kansas City, so I made him from New York."
- Steve Buscemi
(Related: Character)
"Today we affirm a new commitment to live out our nation's promise through civility, courage, compassion and character."
- George W. Bush
(Related: Character, Courage, Commitment, Compassion, Nation, Promise, Today)
"Leadership to me means duty, honor, country. It means character, and it means listening from time to time."
- George W. Bush
(Related: Leadership, Time, Character, Country, Duty, Honor, Listening)
"I get to experiment with a lot of looks with my character so that's really fun for me. It's like getting to paint a new canvas everyday."
- Sophia Bush
(Related: Character, Fun)
"In the initial season of a show, you're figuring out your character and their life and their background and you're putting together all the chapters of the book."
- Sophia Bush
(Related: Life, Character)
"I always find stuff in my characters to relate to."
- Gerard Butler
"Life is a quarry, out of which we are to mold and chisel and complete a character."
- Samuel Butler
(Related: Life, Character)
"The truest characters of ignorance are vanity and pride and arrogance."
- Samuel Butler
(Related: Arrogance, Ignorance, Pride, Vanity)
"I created the characters from what I read in the script. I decided how I should talk, accent, no accent, my own voice, or a created voice. Then, I visualize what I should look like."
- Ruth Buzzi
(Related: Talk, Voice)
"O'Neill presents a very complex multi-layered kind of challenge. His characters are always deeply complex and, to a great extent, inaccessible."
- Gabriel Byrne
(Related: Challenge)
"Not to oversimplify it, somebody once said a good rule of thumb in interpreting a character is to find the good in the bad people that you portray and the bad in the good."
- Gabriel Byrne
(Related: People, Character)
"I've always thought of myself as more of a character actress. I've tried to do different things, but I've always been under the radar and that's how I like it. I've been really blessed to work this long and I just hope I continue to get better and better and better and better."
- Rose Byrne
(Related: Work, Thought, Character, Hope)
"Hollywood didn't know if I was an actor or a nut or if I was this crazy character I was playing. I had developed an image of being a little bit unusual, different and wild."
- Nicolas Cage
(Related: Character, Actor, Being, Hollywood)
"Character, I am sure, lies in the genes."
- Taylor Caldwell
(Related: Character, Lies)
"I get sent a lot of scripts which feature him as a kind of all-purpose Victorian literary character and really understand little, if anything, about him, his life or his books."
- Simon Callow
(Related: Life, Character, Books, Literary)
"He always describes his characters' voices and their physique so brilliantly. As people have said, they are cartoons, caricatures. They're grotesques really."
- Simon Callow
(Related: People, Cartoons)
"He invented this idea of telling the life story of a great writer through becoming his characters and becoming him. It was such a pleasure and I thought we must find another writer."
- Simon Callow
(Related: Life, Thought, Idea, Pleasure, Writer)
"In writing a series of stories about the same characters, plan the whole series in advance in some detail, to avoid contradictions and inconsistencies."
- L. Sprague de Camp
(Related: Detail, Writing)
"You're being cast for your acting ability. It's not based on the way your body functions. If you're playing a lead in a movie, it's for that character and they'll tailor it to you. In a dance company, you have to fit in a definite mold."
- Neve Campbell
(Related: Dance, Character, Ability, Acting, Being, Body, Company)
"I think I may have become an actor to hide from myself. You can escape into a character."
- John Candy
(Related: Character, Actor, May)
"Well, I am a lot like my dad, and the character of Ted is based on my dad."
- Max Cannon
(Related: Dad, Character)
"I'm so into playing different characters, even when I was on Nickelodeon. I just observe."
- Nick Cannon
"I think being mean to people in high school is healthy. It's sort of like you're in this situation with all these other kids and sometimes you need to get your aggression out. And if you'd had people be mean to you before, it really does build character."
- Lizzy Caplan
(Related: People, Character, Aggression, Being, Kids, School)
"I try to bring elements of my own personality to every character I've played, but I think I'm pretty similar to the character I'm playing now. The biggest departure would have to have been Freaks and Geeks Sara, who was this sort of subordinate and shy girl."
- Lizzy Caplan
(Related: Character, Departure, Now, Personality, Pretty)
"I'm in four different films this year, and I have four different accents. I sound different in every film. You have to love a character to play it well, and change in my work is what I want."
- Robert Carlyle
(Related: Change, Love, Work, Character, Film, Play, Sound, Want)
"The darker the character, the more interesting."
- Robert Carlyle
(Related: Character)
"I don't mind playing the same character, but if it's not well done, then I'm not interested."
- Charisma Carpenter
(Related: Character, Mind)
"In Halloween, I viewed the characters as simply normal teenagers. Laurie, Jamie Lee's character, was shy and somewhat repressed. And Michael Myers, the killer, is definitely repressed. They have certain similarities."
- John Carpenter
(Related: Character, Teenagers)
"I've always had difficulties with female characters."
- John Le Carre
(Related: Difficulties)
"Having the Stitch character, the villain that becomes a hero, coming from outer space, it took a very difficult and complex story and put it into a simpler, kinder time."
- Tia Carrere
(Related: Time, Character, Space)
"What I have in common with the character in 'Truman' is this incredible need to please people. I feel like I want to take care of everyone and I also feel this terrible guilt if I am unable to. And I have felt this way ever since all this success started."
- Jim Carrey
(Related: Success, People, Character, Care, Guilt, Want)
"Usually I'm frustrated when I look at my films and I don't believe that I've made a real transformation beyond my usual sets of gestures and expressions. I still have this nagging feeling that it's me, that I didn't create a unique character."
- Helena Bonham Carter
(Related: Character, Feeling, Nagging)
"You learn to rely on a few basic movements and use your voice to the greatest extent possible to convey your emotions. So there was a technical challenge there and a responsibility to create a character from behind the mask."
- Helena Bonham Carter
(Related: Character, Challenge, Emotions, Responsibility, Voice)
"What I loved about playing the corpse is that obviously somebody else got to do the physical part. It appeals to the part of me that likes playing character parts and getting the chance to get away from my own physicality."
- Helena Bonham Carter
(Related: Character, Chance)
"It was a challenge to be able to create a character without being able to use one's normal set of expressions. All the rubber and makeup attached to your face left you with only a modest range of facial movements."
- Helena Bonham Carter
(Related: Character, Being, Challenge, Makeup)
"There is no glory in war, yet from the blackness of its history, there emerge vivid colours of human character and courage. Those who risked their lives to help their friends."
- Silvia Cartwright
(Related: History, War, Character, Courage, Friends, Glory, Help)
"I have this dream life where I get to be a celebrity but I get to navigate the world fairly easily because I'm always in character."
- Dana Carvey
(Related: Life, Dream, Character, Celebrity, World)
"I couldn't do any of my other characters, you know? But I could have done the lady. Church Lady's Malibu Beach party is an idea I have for a movie, too. Yes."
- Dana Carvey
(Related: Idea, Church, Beach, Lady, Party)
"God is a character, a real and consistent being, or He is nothing. If God did a miracle He would deny His own nature and the universe would simply blow up, vanish, become nothing."
- Joyce Cary
(Related: Nature, God, Character, Being, Nothing, Universe)
"I have met with some of them - very honest fellows, who, with all their stupidity, had a kind of intelligence and an upright good sense, which cannot be the characteristics of fools."
- Giacomo Casanova
(Related: Intelligence, Fools, Sense, Stupidity)
"I leave to others the decision as to the good or evil tendencies of my character, but such as it is it shines upon my countenance, and there it can easily be detected by any physiognomist."
- Giacomo Casanova
(Related: Character, Decision, Evil)
"Heart and head are the constituent parts of character; temperament has almost nothing to do with it, and, therefore, character is dependent upon education, and is susceptible of being corrected and improved."
- Giacomo Casanova
(Related: Education, Heart, Character, Being, Nothing, Temperament)
"I've flown out of character so many times. In that sense I've been lucky, because I've been given the liberty to do just about anything I've wanted to do in my lifetime."
- June Carter Cash
(Related: Character, Liberty, Sense)
"My Mom and Dad did it pretty good, so I know it can work. The foremost thing I would say about working with Robin and Sean is that they were devoted to this project and devoted to their characters. You can't ask for any more from talented actors like that."
- Nick Cassavetes
(Related: Dad, Mom, Work, Actors, Pretty, Project)
"The other salient characteristic of the Declaration is its universality: it applies to all human beings without any discrimination whatever; it also applies to all territories, whatever their economic or political regime."
- Rene Cassin
(Related: Discrimination)
"The implementation measures of both Covenants, but especially those of the Covenant concerning civil and political rights, were considerably weakened to the point where they assumed an optional character."
- Rene Cassin
(Related: Character, Rights)
"As a consequence of these hesitations and of the vague character of such innovations, the Commission on Human Rights itself had doubts from the beginning about its role and its functions in general."
- Rene Cassin
(Related: Character, Beginning, Rights, Human rights)
"The nice thing is that, at least in Los Angeles, I'm known as a character actor and I do auditions for other things besides just cartoon shows."
- Dan Castellaneta
(Related: Character, Actor)
"It's a different way of getting across an emotion. You're trying to get it across to the animator because the animator is inspired by the voicetrack in terms of how to animate the character."
- Dan Castellaneta
(Related: Character, Emotion, Trying)
"It's the weirdest thing. When you go into acting, you expect to be a huge star and to be recognized... It did happen, but not in the way you expect it to... In L.A., I'm just another character actor."
- Dan Castellaneta
(Related: Character, Acting, Actor)
"The Simpsons can go anywhere in the world and not worry about any budgetary issues. However, even when the show has had its run, I think the characters can go on in perpetuity."
- Dan Castellaneta
(Related: World, Worry)
"These fallen heroes represent the character of a nation who has a long history of patriotism and honor - and a nation who has fought many battles to keep our country free from threats of terror."
- Michael N. Castle
(Related: History, Patriotism, Character, Country, Heroes, Honor, Nation, Terror)
"To note an artist's limitations is but to define his talent. A reporter can write equally well about everything that is presented to his view, but a creative writer can do his best only with what lies within the range and character of his deepest sympathies."
- Willa Cather
(Related: Talent, Character, Artist, Lies, Limitations, Writer)
"The Missouri is, perhaps, different in appearance and character from all other rivers in the world; there is a terror in its manner which is sensibly felt, the moment we enter its muddy waters from the Mississippi."
- George Catlin
(Related: Character, Appearance, Rivers, Terror, World)
"I sometimes wonder if the inability to find oneself makes one seek oneself in other people, in characters."
- John Cazale
(Related: People, Wonder)
"The history of all the great characters of the Bible is summed up in this one sentence: They acquainted themselves with God, and acquiesced His will in all things."
- Richard Cecil
(Related: History, God, Bible, Will)
"We pledge to fight the dark forces high in the counsels of the Republican Party which have made political capital out of the techniques of character assassination by innuendo."
- Emanuel Celler
(Related: Character, Assassination, Fight, Party, Republican)
"The most difficult character in comedy is that of the fool, and he must be no simpleton that plays that part."
- Miguel de Cervantes
(Related: Character, Comedy, Fool)
"The only way I can be there and really get into the character is if I'm her."
- Lacey Chabert
(Related: Character)
"Moby Dick - that book is so amazing. I just realized that it starts with two characters meeting in bed; that's how my book begins, too, but I hadn't noticed the parallel before, two characters forced to share a bed, reluctantly."
- Michael Chabon
(Related: Bed, Meeting)
"I wanted to give readers the feeling of knowing the characters, a mental image."
- Michael Chabon
(Related: Feeling)
"But to be part of helping create a character and be a part of something from the beginning - the excitement of it - it doesn't get any better."
- Sarah Chalke
(Related: Character, Beginning, Excitement)
"Walking into a show when I was 16, at that time when it was the No. 1 hit show, and replacing a character comes with so many expectations. I felt a lot of pressure with that."
- Sarah Chalke
(Related: Time, Character, Expectations, Pressure, Walking)
"I would like to think that I'm more different from my character than I am."
- Sarah Chalke
(Related: Character)
"People just expect you to show up, be a cartoon character of yourself, take your money and go home. But don't screw up to the point where you're gonna be out of the picture."
- Jimmy Chamberlin
(Related: Money, Home, People, Character)
"Faith is deliberate confidence in the character of God whose ways you may not understand at the time."
- Oswald Chambers
(Related: Faith, Time, God, Character, Confidence, May)
"Character in a saint means the disposition of Jesus Christ persistently manifested."
- Oswald Chambers
(Related: Character, Christ)
"In this watering-place I acted an heroic character, badly studied; and being a novice on such a stage, I forgot my part before a pair of lovely blue eyes."
- Adelbert von Chamisso
(Related: Character, Being, Eyes)
"Each of us is meant to have a character all our own, to be what no other can exactly be, and do what no other can exactly do."
- William Ellery Channing
(Related: Character)
"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."
- William Ellery Channing
(Related: Life, Love, Soul, Thought, Character, Force, Lies, May)
"Every human being is intended to have a character of his own; to be what no others are, and to do what no other can do."
- William Ellery Channing
(Related: Character, Being)
"The great hope of society is in individual character."
- William Ellery Channing
(Related: Society, Character, Hope)
"A man's true character comes out when he's drunk."
- Charlie Chaplin
(Related: Character, Man)
"I had no idea of the character. But the moment I was dressed, the clothes and the make-up made me feel the person he was. I began to know him, and by the time I walked onto the stage he was fully born."
- Charlie Chaplin
(Related: Time, Idea, Character, Clothes)
"It is three and a half hours long, four characters wide and a cesspool deep."
- John Jay Chapman
(Related: Deep)
"Slavery can only be abolished by raising the character of the people who compose the nation; and that can be done only by showing them a higher one."
- Maria W. Chapman
(Related: People, Character, Nation, Slavery)
"I've been on the show for six years and I don't even know what her history is. I sort of make things up in my mind, but I think it's hard for an audience to follow and invest in a character when they don't have the details."
- Crystal Chappell
(Related: History, Character, Mind, Years)
"The thing that I like about the way characters are written on the show these days is that nobody's perfect. Everyone has made a lot of mistakes and bad choices."
- Crystal Chappell
(Related: Choices, Mistakes)
"Our language is the reflection of ourselves. A language is an exact reflection of the character and growth of its speakers."
- Cesar Chavez
(Related: Character, Growth, Language, Reflection)
"We're always trailing, as far as the amount of roles that are written for us and the films that are being made that have black characters in them. I don't know if that's going to change."
- Don Cheadle
(Related: Change, Being)
"No matter how corrupt and unjust a convict may be, he loves fairness more than anything else. If the people placed over him are unfair, from year to year he lapses into an embittered state characterized by an extreme lack of faith."
- Anton Chekhov
(Related: Faith, People, Extreme, May, State)
"One of the special characteristics of New York is that it is different from a London or a Paris because it's the financial capital, and the cultural capital, but not the political capital."
- Ron Chernow
(Related: Financial, London, Paris)
"Character must be kept bright as well as clean."
- Lord Chesterfield
(Related: Character)
"Frequent and loud laughter is the characteristic of folly and ill manners."
- Lord Chesterfield
(Related: Folly, Laughter, Manners)
"I am just another fireman because the story focuses on Joaquin Phoenix's character, but I play Joaquin's close friend and I get burned up a little bit, but I don't die."
- Morris Chestnut
(Related: Friend, Character, Play)
"I had to audition for the part of Jnior, and I wanted the role terribly because I knew it was a great character. This guy is a wonderful, funny, mean old guy."
- Dominic Chianese
(Related: Funny, Character, Old)
"For TV I don't think I could have gotten a better part than Uncle Junior because of the intimacy of the character based on David Chase's brilliant writing."
- Dominic Chianese
(Related: Character, Intimacy, Writing)
"It's a tough case and the first time Reacher needs to recruit somebody to help him out. He uses a woman he knew in the army she's a fascinating character."
- Lee Child
(Related: Time, Character, Army, First, Help, Needs, Woman)
"I know, because I tried all sorts of ways of being in character, and the best way is to be totally straight."
- Tommy Chong
(Related: Character, Being)
"I'm gonna be a character in a Happy Meal."
- Claudia Christian
(Related: Character)
"I would quite like to do a different accent or play something so different from myself because Olivia, the character I play in this film, is similar to me."
- Charlotte Church
(Related: Character, Film, Play)
"Nothing goes further toward a man's liberation than the act of surviving his need for character."
- John Ciardi
(Related: Character, Man, Nothing)
"Our character is not so much the product of race and heredity as of those circumstances by which nature forms our habits, by which we are nurtured and live."
- Marcus Tullius Cicero
(Related: Nature, Character, Circumstances, Habits, Heredity, Race)
"A man's own manner and character is what most becomes him."
- Marcus Tullius Cicero
(Related: Character, Man)
"As fire when thrown into water is cooled down and put out, so also a false accusation when brought against a man of the purest and holiest character, boils over and is at once dissipated, and vanishes and threats of heaven and sea, himself standing unmoved."
- Marcus Tullius Cicero
(Related: Character, Fire, Heaven, Man, Sea, Water)
"It is not by muscle, speed, or physical dexterity that great things are achieved, but by reflection, force of character, and judgment."
- Marcus Tullius Cicero
(Related: Character, Force, Judgment, Reflection)
"The obsession with suicide is characteristic of the man who can neither live nor die, and whose attention never swerves from this double impossibility."
- Emile M. Cioran
(Related: Attention, Impossibility, Man, Obsession, Suicide)
"And the nice thing about writing a novel is you take your time, you sit with the character sometimes nine years, you look very deeply at a situation, unlike in real life when we just kind of snap something out."
- Sandra Cisneros
(Related: Life, Time, Character, Writing, Years)
"The maxims of men reveal their characters."
- Luc de Clapier
(Related: Men, Maxims)
"Yeah, it is, because it's a real discovery of your inner resources, you know. That's what my character is all about and what my playing is all about. But to get up there and just go inside and draw out something that makes you feel good first and foremost."
- Eric Clapton
(Related: Character, Discovery, First)
"Reduced to its lowest terms, the great struggle which now rocks the whole earth more and more takes on the character of a struggle of the individual versus the state."
- J. Reuben Clark
(Related: Character, Earth, Now, State, Struggle)
"They've turned this character into a human being."
- Melinda Clarke
(Related: Character, Being)
"It's never easy with characters in these dark and grave circumstances but that's my job."
- Patricia Clarkson
(Related: Circumstances, Grave, Job)
"I always try to approach character first and foremost viscerally."
- Patricia Clarkson
(Related: Character, First)
"I think it kind of took being a character actor to kind of now enter into leading ladies."
- Patricia Clarkson
(Related: Character, Actor, Being, Ladies, Leading, Now)
"I am in no mood to be deceived any longer by the crafty devil and false character whose greatest pleasure is to take advantage of everyone."
- Camille Claudel
(Related: Character, Devil, Pleasure)
"Of all the properties which belong to honorable men, not one is so highly prized as that of character."
- Henry Clay
(Related: Men, Character)
"Courtesies of a small and trivial character are the ones which strike deepest in the grateful and appreciating heart."
- Henry Clay
(Related: Heart, Character)
"I notice now, whatever character in whatever movie you're watching, they have these toned arms and muscles."
- Jill Clayburgh
(Related: Character, Now)
"I don't theorize too much. I sort of let the experience sink in, and I have to discover what the character is by doing it, and having those thoughts that she's thinking."
- Jill Clayburgh
(Related: Experience, Character, Thoughts, Thinking)
"Clothes are part of the character. They can't but help inform who you are."
- Jill Clayburgh
(Related: Character, Clothes, Help)
"The harm which is done by credulity in a man is not confined to the fostering of a credulous character in others, and consequent support of false beliefs."
- William Kingdon Clifford
(Related: Character, Beliefs, Credulity, Harm, Man, Support)
"When I think about the world I would like to leave to my daughter and the grandchildren I hope to have, it is a world that moves away from unequal, unstable, unsustainable interdependence to integrated communities - locally, nationally and globally - that share the characteristics of all successful communities."
- William J. Clinton
(Related: Daughter, Successful, Hope, World)
"The idea that every time you do a film you're supposed to be tortured confuses me. I mean, guys who say, 'Oh, it's really tough, my character is really suffering' -come on. For us, even in the rotten ones we've had a good time. I don't think you have to suffer."
- George Clooney
(Related: Time, Idea, Character, Film, Suffering)
"As you get older and ease your way into being a character actor you have to be comfortable with where you are in life and career, and I'm very comfortable with what I'm doing - working on projects I'm proud of."
- George Clooney
(Related: Life, Character, Actor, Being, Career, Projects)
"You have to love the characters you play, even if no one else does."
- Glenn Close
(Related: Love, Play)
"Luck relies on chance, labor on character."
- Richard Cobden
(Related: Character, Chance, Labor, Luck)
"One of the characteristics of the dream is that nothing surprises us in it. With no regret, we agree to live in it with strangers, completely cut off from our habits and friends."
- Jean Cocteau
(Related: Dream, Friends, Habits, Nothing, Regret, Strangers, Surprises)
"There are too many souls of wood not to love those wooden characters who do indeed have a soul."
- Jean Cocteau
(Related: Love, Soul, Wood)
"I guess there's a certain amount of poking fun at certain characters, but that's because there is something amusing about them or about the way they behave, so I guess you can say that that's poking fun at the character. But the character is your own invention, so who cares?"
- Joel Coen
(Related: Character, Fun, Invention)
"The characters are the result of two things-first, we elaborate them into fairly well-defined people through their dialogue, then they happen all over again, when the actor interprets them."
- Joel Coen
(Related: People, Actor, Result)
"You love all your characters, even the ridiculous ones. You have to on some level; they're your weird creations in some kind of way. I don't even know how you approach the process of conceiving the characters if in a sense you hated them. It's just absurd."
- Joel Coen
(Related: Love, Sense)
"You're doing it to make the character as specific as possible, so that it's a specific individual that you're talking about, not that whole class of people."
- Joel Coen
(Related: People, Character, Class, Talking)
"I've never really understood that. It's a funny thing; people sometimes accuse us of condescending to our characters somehow-that to me is kind of inexplicable."
- Joel Coen
(Related: Funny, People, Inexplicable)
"Other kinds of movie stars, it's a different thing, they bring their persona to the part and that's what people like to see, and they are not really transforming in terms of their character."
- Joel Coen
(Related: People, Character, Stars)
"Shamelessness is a wonderful part of the character."
- Stephen Colbert
(Related: Character)
"And one cannot discharge the duty of loyalty without the patient and an open minded study of the institution that marked the country and defined its character."
- Bainbridge Colby
(Related: Character, Country, Duty, Loyalty, Open, Study)
"Character is more important than talent."
- Edwin Louis Cole
(Related: Talent, Character)
"Men are limited by the knowledge of their minds, the worth of their characters and the principles upon which they are building their lives."
- Edwin Louis Cole
(Related: Men, Knowledge, Building, Principles, Worth)
"An occupying power has no right to make significant alterations in the character of the occupied society, to change the laws all around, without a strong security reason and so forth."
- Juan Cole
(Related: Change, Power, Society, Character, Laws, Reason, Right, Security)
"No not pigeon holed me as an actor, or as a character, or as to what I could do - but what I would do... and the fact is the things you don't do are almost as important as as the things that you do."
- Dabney Coleman
(Related: Character, Actor, Fact)
"I think is very beneficial to relax yourself so that when you are doing it you are not staggering for lines and your concentration is not on what I am going to say - but the scene itself, the character that you are talking to."
- Dabney Coleman
(Related: Character, Relax, Talking)
"But it was this tough little character part that I was playing, a very funny little guy that I invented over a weekend, because I realized I was not contributing to the humor of this thing. And I had to do something."
- Dabney Coleman
(Related: Funny, Humor, Character, Weekend)
"A child's learning is a function more of the characteristics of his classmates than those of the teacher."
- James S. Coleman
(Related: Learning)
"My character, Taylor McKessie, is a little bit brighter in the math and science department than I am... okay, a lot."
- Monique Coleman
(Related: Science, Character)
"I write about real people in disguise. If anything, my characters are toned down-the truth is much more bizarre."
- Jackie Collins
(Related: Truth, People, Bizarre, Disguise)
"I really fall in love with my characters, even the bad ones. I love getting together with them. They tell me what to do; they take me on a wild and wonderful trip."
- Jackie Collins
(Related: Love)
"Where was Paris Hilton a year ago? She's a fabulous character to write about."
- Jackie Collins
(Related: Character, Paris)
"Yes, I love playing cartoony characters. Been known for that."
- Joan Collins
(Related: Love)
"There starts to be an overlap between you and the character."
- Stephen Collins
(Related: Character)
"While some of them acknowledge the obligation of natural morality in their mode of conducting their cases, and preserve their individual character as gentlemen, there are others who acknowledge no law, human or divine, but the law of Scotland."
- George Combe
(Related: Morality, Character, Gentlemen, Law, Obligation, Scotland)
"I always try to make my characters people, and yet I always want to entertain."
- Jeffrey Combs
(Related: People, Want)
"A scientist is an unlikely character to put at the center of a movie."
- Bill Condon
(Related: Character)
"When we see persons of worth, we should think of equaling them; when we see persons of a contrary character, we should turn inwards and examine ourselves."
- Confucius
(Related: Character, Worth)
"What is overriding that and most important is that readers generally are interested in a good character. They might be more comfortable with Harry because they think they know him, but they always seem willing to give somebody new a chance."
- Michael Connelly
(Related: Character, Chance)
"I care about Bond and what happens to him. You cannot be connected with a character for this long and not have an interest. All the Bond films had their good points."
- Sean Connery
(Related: Character, Care, Interest)
"The true index of a man's character is the health of his wife."
- Cyril Connolly
(Related: Health, Wife, Character, Man)
"Oh, that character was light years away from me. I'm not debonair. I'm not suave. I did wear tight pants, though, because I found out that it worked."
- Robert Conrad
(Related: Character, Light, Years)
"It's like real life: We don't get a preview of what's coming up, thank God, and we don't build our own character from what we're going to be informed with in the future."
- Frances Conroy
(Related: God, Character, Future)
"I like fearless characters, people just not afraid to do anything it takes to make people laugh."
- Dane Cook
(Related: People)
"You know, we have to take these characters - who, granted, have their separate personalities but, on a lot of levels, are pretty two-dimensional - and make them into people with flaws, with insecurities."
- Rachael Leigh Cook
(Related: People, Flaws, Pretty)
"If we divine a discrepancy between a man's words and his character, the whole impression of him becomes broken and painful; he revolts the imagination by his lack of unity, and even the good in him is hardly accepted."
- Charles Horton Cooley
(Related: Imagination, Impression, Character, Man, Unity, Words)
"Outside books, we avoid colorful characters."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: Books)
"Industry, thrift and self-control are not sought because they create wealth, but because they create character."
- Calvin Coolidge
(Related: Character, Wealth, Self)
"You jot down ideas, memories, whatever, concerning your real life that somehow parallels the character you're playing, and you incorporate that in your scene work."
- Chris Cooper
(Related: Life, Work, Ideas, Character, Memories)
"All greatness of character is dependent on individuality. The man who has no other existence than that which he partakes in common with all around him, will never have any other than an existence of mediocrity."
- James F. Cooper
(Related: Character, Greatness, Existence, Individuality, Man, Mediocrity, Will)
"The head writer loves that my character is a boor."
- Rob Corddry
(Related: Character, Writer)
"I'm viewed as this weird, crippled character. But you got to take your lumps."
- Billy Corgan
(Related: Character)
"Travel provided many interesting experiences, but perhaps the most useful lesson I learned was that I really had no proficiency for learning the thousands of characters of the written Chinese language."
- Eric Allin Cornell
(Related: Travel, Language, Learning)
"The ability of Americans to toss off oppressive characters is the most rewarding aspect, to me, of U.S. history."
- Norman Corwin
(Related: History, Ability, Americans)
"It does not matter what party you are a member of in this great Nation of ours. Accountability and competence are characteristics that Americans value throughout our great land."
- Jim Costa
(Related: Americans, Competence, Land, Nation, Party, Value)
"When every one of your arguments is characterized an attempt to bring back slavery or resegregate lunch counters, it's a little hard to have any sort of productive debate."
- Ann Coulter
(Related: Arguments, Debate, Slavery)
"Star Trek characters never go shopping."
- Doug Coupland
"When we see men of worth, we should think of equalling them; when we see men of a contrary character, we should turn inward and examine ourselves."
- Gustave Courbet
(Related: Men, Character, Worth)
"Our character is basically a composite of our habits. Because they are consistent, often unconcious patterns, they constantly, daily, express our character."
- Stephen Covey
(Related: Character, Habits)
"Public behavior is merely private character writ large."
- Stephen Covey
(Related: Character, Behavior, Public)
"From beginning to end it's about keeping the energy and the intensity of the story and not doing too much and not doing too little, but just enough so people stay interested and stay involved in the characters."
- Deborah Cox
(Related: People, Beginning, End, Energy)
"No one knows his true character until he has run out of gas, purchased something on the installment plan and raised an adolescent."
- Marcelene Cox
(Related: Character)
"I much prefer playing the bad guys. I think they are always the most interesting characters. I liken it to painting: if you're playing the good guy, you get three colors: red, white and blue. But if you're the bad guy, you get the whole palette."
- Ronny Cox
"I just felt that you can't have a character fall in love so madly as they did in the last movie and not finish it off, understand it, get some closure. That's why the movie is called 'Quantum of Solace' - that's exactly what he's looking for."
- Daniel Craig
(Related: Love, Character)
"In revolt against this new and very evil thing came the republicanism of the eighteenth century, inspired and directed in large measure by members of the fast perishing aristocracy of race, character and tradition."
- Ralph A. Cram
(Related: Character, Aristocracy, Evil, Measure, Race, Tradition)
"History is the record of an encounter between character and circumstances."
- Donald Creighton
(Related: History, Character, Circumstances)
"The consuming desire of most human beings is deliberately to plant their whole life in the hands of some other person. I would describe this method of searching for happiness as immature. Development of character consists solely in moving toward self-sufficiency."
- Quentin Crisp
(Related: Happiness, Life, Development, Character, Desire, Self)
"Though intelligence is powerless to modify character, it is a dab hand at finding euphemisms for its weaknesses."
- Quentin Crisp
(Related: Intelligence, Character, Euphemisms)
"The first phase of American political history was characterized by the conflict between the Federalists and the Republicans, and it resulted in the complete triumph of the latter."
- Herbert Croly
(Related: History, American, Conflict, First, Republicans)
"Let's put it this way, when I was casting, I cast Viggo first and then found someone who could play his wife, rather than the other way around. So for me he's still the lead character."
- David Cronenberg
(Related: Wife, Character, First, Play)
"All the parts I get offered are character and comedy parts, and I probably wouldn't get them if I had a different face. So I'm glad I have a comedy face."
- Mackenzie Crook
(Related: Character, Comedy)
"Sketches have characters, exits, entrances and are vastly different."
- David Cross
"It's more like can I build a group of characters and can I tell some universal truths that feel real and aren't formulaic in the spirit of filmmakers gone by who've told American stories that were personal and universal as well."
- Cameron Crowe
(Related: American, Spirit)
"Certainly it's very difficult to keep momentum going through a film which has as many characters as this does, and the piece took on a life of its own to try and shape it. That took all the time we had in editing."
- John Crowley
(Related: Life, Time, Film)
"I would take lots of falls and you know, get shot three or four times and this sort of thing, so all that sort of stuff. And there are tussles with various characters. I like that kind of thing."
- Marton Csokas
"Before there was any talk of a movie, people would sometimes ask me what actors I would imagine playing these characters. And the only thing I could ever say is: I have such a clear idea of these characters that they'd have to play themselves."
- Michael Cunningham
(Related: People, Idea, Actors, Play, Talk)
"For me, what I really want to come out of it is to show people that I can hold together a movie, be the number one character and play someone who is twenty or twenty-one."
- Kaley Cuoco
(Related: People, Character, Play, Want)
"Alfred Nobel's discoveries are characteristic; powerful explosives can help men perform admirable tasks. They are also a means to terrible destruction in the hands of the great criminals who lead peoples to war."
- Pierre Curie
(Related: Men, War, Destruction, Help)
"It is for the latter that I always wanted to be an actor: to play characters who are always on the move."
- Tony Curtis
(Related: Play)
"Today's youth cannot miss something they have never known, but I fear that there are no current fictional characters whose impact and influence will last with such abiding affection into their 'sore and yellow' as this splendid man's creations have in mine!"
- Peter Cushing
(Related: Fear, Affection, Influence, Man, Today, Will, Youth)
"No artist work is so high, so noble, so grand, so enduring, so important for all time, as the making of character is a child."
- Charlotte Saunders Cushman
(Related: Work, Time, Character, Artist)
"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
(Related: Life, People, Saying)
"Progressive art can assist people to learn not only about the objective forces at work in the society in which they live, but also about the intensely social character of their interior lives. Ultimately, it can propel people toward social emancipation."
- Salvador Dali
(Related: Art, Society, Work, People, Character)
"I don't act in the way other actresses act, in terms of building or creating a character. I don't transform myself into the role, I invest myself in the role."
- Beatrice Dalle
(Related: Character, Building)
"I didn't see my character, Core, as a cannibal but as somebody who is extremely passionate and who doesn't have any conscience. She takes her passion to its complete extreme."
- Beatrice Dalle
(Related: Character, Conscience, Extreme, Passion)
"I think for anybody reading the book they're going to get an idea in their heads of all those characters, and I think that once that gets fixed, it's quite hard to shake."
- Hugh Dancy
(Related: Idea, Reading)
"Specifically, we talked about making the character of the prince not so charming, at least in the beginning, and I'm playing around with the preconceptions attached to a character. That's really what intrigued me as well because I thought it would be fun to do it."
- Hugh Dancy
(Related: Thought, Character, Beginning, Fun)
"Creating a character and living truthfully through her is a whole different ball game. It's all part of the same person but it's a much newer medium for me."
- Taylor Dane
(Related: Character, Living)
"My character was kidnapped by the Terminator and I was kidnapped by the Terminator production."
- Claire Danes
(Related: Character, Production)
"None of my characters seem to have had sex yet - I haven't written about that. And I wouldn't want to deal with what's happening in Oregon - the school shootings."
- Paula Danziger
(Related: Sex, School, Want)
"Normally, I name my characters after famous comedians."
- Paula Danziger
(Related: Comedians, Famous, Name)
"But the more we search the Scriptures, the more we perceive, in this doctrine, the fundamental truth of the gospel - that truth which gives to redemption its character, and to all other truths their real power."
- John Nelson Darby
(Related: Power, Truth, Character, Doctrine)
"The Reformation did not directly touch the question of the true character of God's church."
- John Nelson Darby
(Related: God, Character, Church, Question)
"Jude has a very different character. It is not the cradle of Christianity, or of the assembly on earth: it is its decay and its death here below. It does not keep its first estate."
- John Nelson Darby
(Related: Death, Character, Christianity, First)
"Although this is a fictitious story the history is real. You don't want to re-write history but you certainly want to portray events and characters as realistically as you can."
- James D'arcy
(Related: History, Events, Want)
"Also, from a technical point of view, as you're standing in front of a microphone all day, it's quite a good idea that I should play a laid back sort of character because if he was too frenetic, I'd be exhausted by lunch!"
- Paul Darrow
(Related: Idea, Character, Day, Play)
"I came across awful characters when I got some kind of status and came to Hollywood. Then you have directors trying to sleep with you, assuming that you will do things because of the way you dress."
- Stacey Dash
(Related: Dress, Hollywood, Sleep, Trying, Will)
"At first, I didn't realize it was gonna be a character. I just thought I was gonna be doing me."
- Larry David
(Related: Thought, Character, First)
"I've played four characters now, my latest one being Sandor the gypsy."
- Thayer David
(Related: Being, Now)
"To be a book-collector is to combine the worst characteristics of a dope fiend with those of a miser."
- Robertson Davies
(Related: Miser)
"I don't think of myself as a character actress - that's become a phrase which means you've had it."
- Bette Davis
(Related: Character)
"We're showing kids a world that is very scantily populated with women and female characters. They should see female characters taking up half the planet, which we do."
- Geena Davis
(Related: Women, Kids, World)
"I played this character twice in live action, and now I've become an animated character. It was actually fun to see myself drawn - I've never been a drawn character before."
- Geena Davis
(Related: Action, Character, Fun, Now)
"Duke came to us. They volunteered to come to us and made a number of suggestions to some people on my staff. I don't know how I would characterize them, but there have been some discussions going back and forth between Duke and members of my staff."
- Gray Davis
(Related: People)
"Yes, the first job I had at the studio was Snow White. I don't like the term particularly, but I got stuck with the human characters. They just didn't have that many people who could draw humans."
- Marc Davis
(Related: People, First, Job, Snow)
"There is something I feel when I animate something; you can never really understand the character you're animating unless you've had the opportunity to turn it around. Once you've done that, you know it is a three-dimensional object."
- Marc Davis
(Related: Opportunity, Character)
"The country has been of better character since leaving the Buttes than E. of them, but has now a very fertile appearance. This may be said to begin about the 3rd crossing of Milk R of the line."
- George Mercer Dawson
(Related: Character, Appearance, Country, May, Now)
"I thought my character definitely was very much in love with him and wanted to be with him, but I think at some point they were going to have to draw the line."
- Rosario Dawson
(Related: Love, Thought, Character)
"Age should not have its face lifted, but it should rather teach the world to admire wrinkles as the etchings of experience and the firm line of character."
- Clarence Day
(Related: Age, Experience, Character, World)
"Studying cows, pigs and chickens can help an actor develop his character. There are a lot of things I learned from animals. One was that they couldn't hiss or boo me."
- James Dean
(Related: Character, Actor, Animals, Cows, Help)
"My books are primarily plot driven but the best plot in the world is useless if you don't populate them with characters that readers can care about."
- Jeffery Deaver
(Related: Books, Care, World)
"So I work hard to present the human side of my characters while not neglecting the plot."
- Jeffery Deaver
(Related: Work, Present)
"I also try very hard to create characters - both heroes and villains - with psychological depth."
- Jeffery Deaver
(Related: Heroes)
"I designed all the characters, anyway, and Frank Doyle was doing all the writing. I didn't have any more input on what direction they were going to go with Josie."
- Dan DeCarlo
(Related: Direction, Writing)
"Because they feel that without them telling you to do this, you wouldn't have had the characters that you have, you wouldn't have the book that you have."
- Dan DeCarlo
"I only work with actors who take full responsibility for their characters."
- Jonathan Demme
(Related: Work, Actors, Responsibility)
"I admire directors so much, I find them incredible: they manage such a huge number of people of different characters, think of the money involved."
- Catherine Deneuve
(Related: Money, People)
"You get involved with a character after spending a long time waiting, and this demands a lot of energy and concentration."
- Catherine Deneuve
(Related: Time, Character, Energy, Waiting)
"I don't live that much with the character. I find it hard enough having to spend so many hours with the character during the day."
- Catherine Deneuve
(Related: Character, Day)
"I like the idea of bringing cartoon characters to life... and although the Americans have already attempted this, their culture is not sufficiently humane to make it work."
- Gerard Depardieu
(Related: Work, Life, Idea, Americans, Culture)
"Whatever character you play, it gives you the chance to expose another side of yourself that maybe you've never felt comfortable with, or never knew about."
- Laura Dern
(Related: Character, Chance, Play)
"Many characters in the novel are representative of types that exist in India. He represents the caste system in India with an air of superiority, the caste system in India and the people thinking that western things are better."
- Anita Desai
(Related: People, Superiority, Thinking)
"I try to trace the connection between the characters and that way a story or plot emerges."
- Anita Desai
(Related: Connection)
"At one time, whenever the hell it was, they wanted a character to come in and stir up the pot. They brought me in for 8-10 episodes and said we'll try it for that."
- William Devane
(Related: Time, Character, Hell)
"I'm trying to find a character that's my age and I can sustain week after week. I'd like to do a series."
- William Devane
(Related: Age, Character, Trying)
"And I have to credit David Jacobs with the opportunities he gave me. He was totally into sharing the creation of characters. David put together a show that told the story of people over many years' time and that was greatly enjoyable. Though nowadays that is frowned upon."
- William Devane
(Related: Time, People, Creation, Credit, Sharing, Years)
"David was the kind of guy who was totally supportive of the actors and instructed the writing staff to trust the actor's instincts, since after all, it's the actors playing the character."
- William Devane
(Related: Trust, Character, Actor, Actors, Writing)
"What Tim does is, he calls me and sends me the script. And then he sends me a drawing, an illustration of his image of me as the character. It's so great."
- Danny DeVito
(Related: Character)
"I remember the guest stars who came, they were always trying to find a new plot for their characters because they wanted to stay. It was really a great working environment."
- Caroline Dhavernas
(Related: Environment, Guest, Stars, Trying)
"It's very witty and it's great to see teenage characters have control that way. And you can actually hear about sex and pot and it's okay, it's not completely bad and you can't say that to teenagers."
- Caroline Dhavernas
(Related: Sex, Control, Teenage, Teenagers, Witty)
"Whatever your relationship is to your sacred tradition in the West, you have some relationship to the Bible if only through the names of the characters."
- Anita Diament
(Related: Bible, Names, Tradition)
"Oftentimes, in fact I think this is to my fault, I look at usually scripts as a whole. I should probably pay more attention to the character that I'm going to play and what they do."
- Cameron Diaz
(Related: Character, Attention, Fact, Fault, Play)
"I'm at the mercy of whatever character comes into my head."
- Kate DiCamillo
(Related: Character, Mercy)
"Don't think for a moment that I'm really like any of the characters I've played. I'm not. That's why it's called 'acting'."
- Leonardo DiCaprio
"I couldn't deal with playing a character who rides motorcycles and has a leather jacket and is a tough kid, y'know?"
- Leonardo DiCaprio
(Related: Character)
"I like to be able to play a character and act out a lot of things which I can't or don't do in my normal everyday life."
- Leonardo DiCaprio
(Related: Life, Character, Play)
"I really don't know what I'm doing... I don't. It's terrible. I go in there and I learn how to be like the character and do the best I can, and that's all I really do."
- Leonardo DiCaprio
(Related: Character)
"Portraying emotionally ill characters gives me the chance to really act."
- Leonardo DiCaprio
(Related: Act, Chance)
"The best thing about acting is that I get to lose myself in another character and actually get paid for it... It's a great outlet. I'm not really sure who I am - it seems I change every day."
- Leonardo DiCaprio
(Related: Change, Character, Acting, Day)
"The idea of exploring character relations and their development over a decade has to be appealing for any actor who cherishes his craft."
- Vin Diesel
(Related: Idea, Development, Character, Actor)
"I was raised in New York City and raised in the New York City theater world. My father was a theater director and an acting teacher, and it was not uncommon for me to have long discussions about the method and what the various different processes were to finding a character and exploring character and realizing that character."
- Vin Diesel
(Related: Father, Character, Acting, Theater, World)
"One of the things that characterizes good intellectual work is a certain self-importance."
- Whitfield Diffie
(Related: Work, Self)
"The moment seemed right to me for a full and, if possible, authoritative portrait of the life and character of the Prince of Wales."
- Jonathan Dimbleby
(Related: Life, Character, Right)
"We have created characters and animated them in the dimension of depth, revealing through them to our perturbed world that the things we have in common far outnumber and outweigh those that divide us."
- Walt Disney
(Related: World)
"All cartoon characters and fables must be exaggeration, caricatures. It is the very nature of fantasy and fable."
- Walt Disney
(Related: Nature, Exaggeration, Fantasy)
"I try to build a full personality for each of our cartoon characters - to make them personalities."
- Walt Disney
(Related: Personality)
"There is no index of character so sure as the voice."
- Benjamin Disraeli
(Related: Character, Voice)
"There is no greater index of character so sure as the voice."
- Benjamin Disraeli
(Related: Character, Voice)
"Characters do not change. Opinions alter, but characters are only developed."
- Benjamin Disraeli
(Related: Change, Opinions)
"I love the creating part of taking on a character. It is fun to be another person and create what it would be like to be that person."
- Jason Dohring
(Related: Love, Character, Fun)
"But having said all of that, that still doesn't account for a lot of the increase in popularity which stems, I think, from Lincoln's personal characteristics."
- David Herbert Donald
(Related: Popularity)
"I had no intention of pursuing either the characters or the setting further."
- Stephen R. Donaldson
(Related: Intention)
"Unless you look like Brad Pitt, it's really hard to have full control of your character."
- Vincent D'Onofrio
(Related: Character, Control)
"With Altman, he does discuss everything with you, but then leaves you to it and gives you full rein and lets you improvise and create a character while the camera is rolling."
- Vincent D'Onofrio
(Related: Character)
"When you are a character actor they trust you will go in and give them a full character and leave."
- Vincent D'Onofrio
(Related: Trust, Character, Actor, Will)
"Like De Niro. He's one of the best character actors we have ever had."
- Vincent D'Onofrio
(Related: Character, Actors)
"I found my niche as a character actor, and I've never felt like a movie star or teen idol and never wanted to."
- Vincent D'Onofrio
(Related: Teen, Character, Actor)
"I'm a character actor, and I made a choice when I was young, after 'Mystic Pizza', not to go for the mainstream stuff, and to do a more eclectic kind of route."
- Vincent D'Onofrio
(Related: Character, Actor, Choice)
"I'll be working the rest of my life because I'm a character actor and don't have to worry about box office."
- Vincent D'Onofrio
(Related: Life, Character, Actor, Office, Rest, Worry)
"And I have been able to establish this sort of decent reputation as being a decent character actor."
- Vincent D'Onofrio
(Related: Character, Actor, Being, Reputation)
"The more you are known, the more difficult it is to hide behind characters."
- Vincent D'Onofrio
"I'd love to star in a television series of my own. I love the idea of living with a character for a number of years, watching him grow."
- Michael Dorn
(Related: Love, Idea, Character, Living, Television, Years)
"When I do a character, I try to base it on someone I have met or an experience I've had."
- Illeana Douglas
(Related: Experience, Character)
"I want to be an animated character. I'm also doing more writing and directing."
- Illeana Douglas
(Related: Character, Want, Writing)
"I had an obsession that I was male characters from movies."
- Illeana Douglas
(Related: Movies, Obsession)
"You can construct the character of a man and his age not only from what he does and says, but from what he fails to say and do."
- Norman Douglas
(Related: Age, Character, Man)
"A man's character always takes its hue, more or less, from the form and color of things about him."
- Frederick Douglass
(Related: Character, Man)
"I have frequently gained my first real insight into the character of parents by studying their children."
- Arthur Conan Doyle
(Related: Character, Children, First, Parents)
"I've gone very far, far away, but my character keeps me close to home."
- Fran Drescher
(Related: Home, Character)
"It must be remembered that the Bush White House has a separate talent for character assassination that must not be confused with a talent for governance."
- Richard Dreyfuss
(Related: Talent, Character, Assassination)
"Strength of character may be learned at work, but beauty of character is learned at home."
- Henry Drummond
(Related: Beauty, Home, Work, Character, Strength, May)
"Weird, but sometimes I feel more like my cartoon character than I do Lizzie because she's a little more edgy and snappy."
- Hilary Duff
(Related: Character)
"I play a recurring role for a character named Doctor Imo. I assist the villain and show up from time to time."
- Keir Dullea
(Related: Time, Character, Play)
"Ancestor worship, or filial piety so characteristic of Asian cultures, for example, does not really resonate with Americans who favor children, not grandparents."
- Alan Dundes
(Related: Americans, Children, Example, Grandparents, Piety, Worship)
"Although there was a screenplay, the actors never knew what questions I was going to ask them, and all of my character's voice-over narration and scenes were added after the fact."
- Griffin Dunne
(Related: Character, Actors, Fact, Questions, Voice)
"I always believed in my characters. I lived them."
- Irene Dunne
"Since it's based on my parents, it's more emotionally close to me than some of my more surreal plays. And then I like the balance of the comic and the sad. It should play as funny, but you should care about the characters and feel sad for them."
- Christopher Durang
(Related: Funny, Balance, Care, Parents, Play)
"Because I killed a guy in real life, and because my character kills a guy onstage, they said I could never do anything this great again. I resented that."
- Charles S. Dutton
(Related: Life, Character)
"I'll keep on acting 'til they wipe the drool. I like the business. I like to do different parts and diverse characters. I haven't lost my enthusiasm yet!"
- Robert Duvall
(Related: Business, Enthusiasm, Acting)
"It is characteristic of all deep human problems that they are not to be approached without some humor and some bewilderment."
- Freeman Dyson
(Related: Humor, Deep, Problems)
"I think my character's getting to the point where he can't even eat spaghetti with red sauce anymore, where he has horrible nightmares, he can't sleep anymore."
- George Eads
(Related: Character, Sleep)
"Mother Firefly is the kind of character I've always wanted to play. She's larger than life, terribly tragic, and capable of a lot of love."
- Leslie Easterbrook
(Related: Love, Life, Mother, Character, Play)
"When I first started acting, I started in opera and had a great desire to play grand, tragic characters. I got sidetracked in musical theater and ended up doing a lot of comedy."
- Leslie Easterbrook
(Related: Acting, Comedy, Desire, First, Opera, Play, Theater)
"Friendship is held to be the severest test of character. It is easy, we think, to be loyal to a family and clan, whose blood is in your own veins."
- Charles Alexander Eastman
(Related: Family, Friendship, Character, Blood)
"Friendship is held to be the severest test of character."
- Charles Eastman
(Related: Friendship, Character)
"Indian names were either characteristic nicknames given in a playful spirit, deed names, birth names, or such as have a religious and symbolic meaning."
- Charles Eastman
(Related: Deed, Meaning, Names, Religious, Spirit)
"The elements and majestic forces in nature, Lightning, Wind, Water, Fire, and Frost, were regarded with awe as spiritual powers, but always secondary and intermediate in character."
- Charles Eastman
(Related: Nature, Character, Fire, Spiritual, Water, Wind)
"I think theatre is by far the most rewarding experience for an actor. You get 4 weeks to rehearse your character and then at 7:30 pm you start acting and nobody stops you, acting with your entire soul."
- Christopher Eccleston
(Related: Experience, Soul, Character, Acting, Actor, Theatre)
"But I guess I like playing flawed guys 'cause it gives a place for the characters to go."
- Aaron Eckhart
"I've been in a lot of trouble and come out of it. I think it shows a lot of good character."
- Stefan Edberg
(Related: Character, Trouble)
"What a man's mind can create, man's character can control."
- Thomas A. Edison
(Related: Character, Control, Man, Mind)
"High aims form high characters, and great objects bring out great minds."
- Tryon Edwards
"When you're working with a smaller budget I suppose one of the things that has to be in your mind when you are writing is that you have to keep the characters down to a minimum."
- Atom Egoyan
(Related: Mind, Writing)
"Knowledge has outstripped character development, and the young today are given an education rather than an upbringing."
- Ilya Ehrenburg
(Related: Education, Knowledge, Development, Character, Today)
"Most people say that is it is the intellect which makes a great scientist. They are wrong: it is character."
- Albert Einstein
(Related: People, Character, Intellect)
"Perfection of means and confusion of ends seem to characterize our age."
- Albert Einstein
(Related: Age, Confusion, Perfection)
"One strength of the communist system of the East is that it has some of the character of a religion and inspires the emotions of a religion."
- Albert Einstein
(Related: Religion, Character, Strength, Emotions)
"Confusion of goals and perfection of means seems, in my opinion, to characterize our age."
- Albert Einstein
(Related: Age, Goals, Confusion, Opinion, Perfection)
"Weakness of attitude becomes weakness of character."
- Albert Einstein
(Related: Attitude, Character, Weakness)
"True art is characterized by an irresistible urge in the creative artist."
- Albert Einstein
(Related: Art, Artist)
"Every character I play has to be the hero of his own story, the way we're all heroes of our own lives."
- Jesse Eisenberg
(Related: Character, Heroes, Play)
"If you're soft and fuzzy, like our little characters, you become the skinny kid on the beach, and people in this business don't mind kicking sand in your face."
- Michael Eisner
(Related: Business, People, Beach, Mind)
"It's a strange thing, but you get this click in your brain; the wonderful feeling that the entirety of a character is suddenly available and accessible to you."
- Chiwetel Ejiofor
(Related: Character, Feeling)
"I think I enjoy working obviously as a lead, but also you know I feel I'm also a character actor as well, so I enjoy approaching various projects in all sort of capacities. Any film I have been able to do I feel very fortunate to have been a part of."
- Chiwetel Ejiofor
(Related: Character, Actor, Film, Projects)
"I enjoy doing everything, comedy and drama. I just look for the characters really and what they offer."
- Chiwetel Ejiofor
(Related: Comedy, Drama)
"It was the most pleasurable thing I've ever done, playing this character, and I just remember feeling so at home and so - I don't know, I was just happy - and it just wasn't ever work! It was like a sandbox for me, and I would crack myself up rehearsing."
- Jenna Elfman
(Related: Home, Character, Feeling)
"Yeah, I think the common denominator - and this is probably going to sound like Acting 101 - but the common denominator is belief in the character in the moment."
- Jenna Elfman
(Related: Belief, Character, Acting, Sound)
"And as a character, what I found very inspiring about playing Dharma, especially at that time, is that the women on television were more neurotic than they were free. And I thought, this is a rare bird and this is unique on television and I think it's really refreshing."
- Jenna Elfman
(Related: Women, Time, Thought, Character, Inspiring, Television)
"And I'm so excited to remind people and even gain new fans who find out about Dharma - a new generation who could find out about Dharma and enjoy her and all the characters on the show."
- Jenna Elfman
(Related: People, Fans, Gain)
"I just kind of understood it, and I threw my love for others and love for life into the character, and was having a blast. I loved playing Dharma. I loved it!"
- Jenna Elfman
(Related: Life, Love, Character)
"All significant truths are private truths. As they become public they cease to become truths; they become facts, or at best, part of the public character; or at worst, catchwords."
- T. S. Eliot
(Related: Character, Facts, Public)
"A toothache, or a violent passion, is not necessarily diminished by our knowledge of its causes, its character, its importance or insignificance."
- T. S. Eliot
(Related: Knowledge, Character, Causes, Importance, Passion)
"I want to do a little bit of everything. I want to play a good, strong female character."
- Shannon Elizabeth
(Related: Character, Play, Want)
"You have to understand the tone of the movie, because if it's supposed to be funny, it can be funny violent like the Home Alone stuff, but you have to really understand the tone of what you're doing and make the action work for that and for the character."
- David R. Ellis
(Related: Funny, Home, Work, Action, Character)
"It is as if Clinton had called one of the most respected character witnesses in all of U.S. history to testify that the primal urge has a most distinguished presidential pedigree."
- Joseph J. Ellis
(Related: History, Character)
"My mother and I will continue on some level that I haven't determined yet. I think my mother's a great character, and I have to say that giving my mother to the world has to be the biggest thrill of my writing career."
- James Ellroy
(Related: Mother, Character, Career, Giving, Will, World, Writing)
"No change of circumstances can repair a defect of character."
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
(Related: Change, Character, Circumstances)
"People seem not to see that their opinion of the world is also a confession of character."
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
(Related: People, Character, Confession, Opinion, World)
"People do not seem to realize that their opinion of the world is also a confession of character."
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
(Related: People, Character, Confession, Opinion, World)
"Character is higher than intellect. A great soul will be strong to live as well as think."
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
(Related: Soul, Character, Intellect, Will)
"Judge of your natural character by what you do in your dreams."
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
(Related: Dreams, Character)
"Let no man write my epitaph... When my country takes her place among the nations of the earth, then shall my character be vindicated, then may my epitaph be written."
- Robert Emmet
(Related: Character, Country, Earth, Man, May, Nations)
"Turkey, unlike chicken, has very elegant characteristics. It has more of a cache than chicken. Turkey is a delicacy, so it should be presented in such a way."
- Todd English
(Related: Turkey)
"I always get inspiration from whatever characters say about my character."
- Robert Englund
(Related: Inspiration, Character)
"Many great horror stories are period pieces and English actors have a facility for historic characters."
- Robert Englund
(Related: Actors, English, Horror)
"It would have shown people that I was prepared to do that kind of work, although I find myself in a position now where I don't really need to and I could pick and choose the kind of characters I'd like to do."
- Garth Ennis
(Related: Work, People, Now)
"There's immense fun to be had as long as you can sort of sneak it past DC. I have been told on occasion that I need to have more respect for these characters."
- Garth Ennis
(Related: Fun, Past, Respect)
"Preacher is a book that somehow allows me time by its settling on it's characters, that sort of modern gothic western feel. You're not likely to see the boat veering too far from that."
- Garth Ennis
(Related: Time)
"I guess you can stay sort of true to the story; you don't have to artificially bring the character back from whatever doom you've designed for them, you can tell the story, I suppose, honestly."
- Garth Ennis
(Related: Character)
"Hitman does well and it certainly does well enough to survive, but at the same time I don't want to involve the character into the DC Universe even if it meant more sales, to the point where we sort of upset the balance that we have at the moment."
- Garth Ennis
(Related: Time, Character, Balance, Sales, Universe, Want)
"If you look at Marvel Comics, there are very few Marvel characters I would like to write."
- Garth Ennis
"Imagine for yourself a character, a model personality, whose example you determine to follow, in private as well as in public."
- Epictetus
(Related: Character, Example, Personality, Public)
"Character is what you have left when you've lost everything you can lose."
- Evan Esar
(Related: Character)
"A signature always reveals a man's character - and sometimes even his name."
- Evan Esar
(Related: Character, Man, Name)
"A lot of directors are great and they are fine but you know I think that Harry really takes a special point to really engage the actors and really make it feel like a safe place for them to explore whatever it is they want to explore in whatever scene with their character."
- Will Estes
(Related: Character, Actors, Want)
"The book has many different characteristics: some are extremely old-fashioned storytelling traits, but there are also a fair number of postmodern traits, and the self-consciousness is one."
- Jeffrey Eugenides
(Related: Old, Self)
"Wealth stays with us a little moment if at all: only our characters are steadfast, not our gold."
- Euripides
(Related: Wealth, Gold)
"I always knew I wanted to be a character in the movies. When I was growing up, I had to have a lot of surgery, and I spent a lot of time recovering at home and in the hospital. Watching movies took me away from my own problems and gave me a total escape."
- Josh Ryan Evans
(Related: Home, Movies, Time, Character, Growing up, Problems)
"Hard work spotlights the character of people: some turn up their sleeves, some turn up their noses, and some don't turn up at all."
- Sam Ewing
(Related: Work, Character, Hard work, Noses)
"One of the ways I think I gain fodder for characters is by watching people."
- Edie Falco
(Related: People, Gain)
"I do not believe we can blame genetics for adultery, homosexuality, dishonesty and other character flaws."
- Jerry Falwell
(Related: Character, Adultery, Blame, Dishonesty, Flaws, Genetics, Homosexuality)
"I think all actors are supposed to be character actors."
- Dennis Farina
(Related: Character, Actors)
"I read the script and try not to bring anything personal into it. I make notes, talk to the director and we decide what kinds of shades should be in the character."
- Dennis Farina
(Related: Character, Talk)
"Black leadership has to recognize that principles more than speech, character more than a claim, is greater in advancing the cause of our liberation than what has transpired thus far."
- Louis Farrakhan
(Related: Leadership, Character, Cause, Principles, Speech)
"Overall, the challenge of leadership is both moral and one of developing the characteristics that make us respected by one another."
- Louis Farrakhan
(Related: Leadership, Challenge)
"But in the life of every man there are influences of a far more real and penetrating character than those which come through the medium of schools or teachers."
- Frederic William Farrar
(Related: Life, Character, Man, Schools, Teachers)
"Magneto has a whole lot of complexity to him. Emotionally, he's coming from a very damaged place. I like the ambivalence of it. I want the audience leaving the theater wondering, asking the questions themselves rather than being spoon-fed like a lot of these super-villain characters."
- Michael Fassbender
(Related: Being, Complexity, Questions, Theater, Want)
"It is almost impossible to imagine that any one could be so insensible to the high morality of Mr. Mill's character as to suggest to him any course of conduct that was not entirely upright and consistent."
- Millicent Fawcett
(Related: Morality, Character)
"I think if you play a character that is fearless, then it's boring. I think that's what was so incredible about Harrison Ford, is that he always seemed like he was never going to survive it, he's always scared, and yet he always does survive it somehow."
- Oded Fehr
(Related: Character, Play)
"Also, it's risky to try to duplicate earlier success. Magician had a certain charm to it, mostly due to my choice of lead characters, that I would be hard put to duplicate."
- Raymond E. Feist
(Related: Success, Charm, Choice)
"The growing tide of anti-Semitism shocks the conscious of everyone who values freedom, and the ugly, hateful acts particularly stain the character of democracies where liberty and religious freedom are supposed to be respected."
- Mike Ferguson
(Related: Character, Values, Freedom, Liberty, Religious, Ugly)
"Whereas Schaeffer and Henry were working like samplers, their idea was to capture those sounds which couldn't be serially calibrated because they were too complex in character."
- Luc Ferrari
(Related: Idea, Character)
"I think I came across Cecil Taylor a bit later, in 65 or 66. That really impressed me - Cecil Taylor is an amazing character... Both his music and the way he approaches the instrument are astonishing."
- Luc Ferrari
(Related: Music, Character)
"The characteristic of coquettes is affectation governed by whim."
- Henry Fielding
(Related: Affectation, Whim)
"I admire the world of the books and the characters that she's created, but I'm not an addict of Harry Potter. I don't feel possessive about it."
- Ralph Fiennes
(Related: Books, World)
"My play Safe Sex was picked apart because critics thought it was untrue. It was a play in which no one had AIDS, but the characters talked about how it was going to change their lives."
- Harvey Fierstein
(Related: Change, Sex, Thought, Play)
"You know, I always got offered other stuff. Not the romantic leads, obviously. But very often it's a role that's underwritten, where the character has no personality at all. And they need a character actor who can fill it in."
- Harvey Fierstein
(Related: Character, Actor, Personality, Romantic)
"In Torch Song, I did that character almost non-stop from 1978 until I made the movie in 1987. Then I had some failure, which also colors how you react to doing other things."
- Harvey Fierstein
(Related: Character, Failure, Colors, Song)
"To be a character who feels a deep emotion, one must go into the memory's vault and mix in a sad memory from one's own life."
- Albert Finney
(Related: Life, Character, Deep, Emotion, Memory)
"I haven't seen the film yet because I just got in from London. In the scenes where the two characters are bantering with each other, it is like bobbing at the net in tennis."
- Albert Finney
(Related: Film, London, Tennis)
"I do think I'm a character actor."
- Colin Firth
(Related: Character, Actor)
"Special effects are characters. Special effects are essential elements. Just because you can't see them doesn't mean they aren't there."
- Laurence Fishburne
"Action is character."
- F. Scott Fitzgerald
(Related: Action, Character)
"Homer's whole language, the language in which he lived, the language that he breathed, because he never saw it, or certainly those who formed his tradition never saw it, in characters on the pages. It was all on the tongue and in the ear."
- Robert Fitzgerald
(Related: Language, Tongue, Tradition)
"Strangely enough, the first character in Fried Green Tomatoes was the cafe, and the town. I think a place can be as much a character in a novel as the people."
- Fannie Flagg
(Related: People, Character, First)
"Judge the goodness of a book by the energy of the punches it has given you. I believe the greatest characteristic of genius, is, above all, force."
- Gustave Flaubert
(Related: Genius, Energy, Force, Goodness)
"The Goth character was a difficult thing to get my head round. I'm not really a fan of Goth music. I'm more a piano and guitar man - that's what I love."
- Richard Fleeshman
(Related: Love, Music, Character, Guitar, Man)
"I think that the character that I'm playing now is so fundamentally different than Ally that I haven't I haven't felt like I had to worry about it at all. But I definitely wanted to make a different choice."
- Calista Flockhart
(Related: Character, Choice, Now, Worry)
"Sometimes when you play a character, you can feel it in your body. And I felt like I had characteristics of my dog: the way Webster moves, the way he holds his head. I kind of adapted it into this part unconsciously."
- Calista Flockhart
(Related: Character, Body, Play)
"Like any other composer of opera, I choose a subject not for polemical reasons, but because it contains vivid characters in highly charged dramatic situations."
- Carlisle Floyd
(Related: Opera)
"It's necessary to track characters all the way through an opera. If you're dealing with more than one or two characters, it's very easy to forget that the others have lives of their own that feed into the story."
- Carlisle Floyd
(Related: Forget, Opera)
"One of the characteristics I cherish in my friends is their childlike gullibility, and several excited minutes were spent trying to actually find this book."
- Phil Foglio
(Related: Friends, Trying)
"My only requirement for that first story was that there had to be a fight or an explosion on every page. Naturally, no one wanted to publish it, but I liked the character, did a few stories to keep my hand in."
- Phil Foglio
(Related: Character, Fight, First)
"By offering an education centered on values, the faculty in Catholic schools can create an interactive setting between parents and students that is geared toward long-term healthy character and scholastic development for all enrolled children."
- Mark Foley
(Related: Education, Development, Character, Values, Children, Parents, Schools, Students)
"When I'm writing a woman character, I don't think, 'What would a woman do?' I just think, 'What would this character do in this situation?'"
- Ken Follett
(Related: Character, Woman, Writing)
"Thrillers have been traditionally very masculine books; the women characters often rather decorative."
- Ken Follett
(Related: Women, Books)
"In my books, women often solve the problem. Even if the woman is not the hero, she's a strong character. She does change the plot. She'll often rescue the male character from some situation."
- Ken Follett
(Related: Change, Women, Character, Books, Woman)
"I like to create imaginary characters and events around a real historical situation. I want readers to feel: OK, this probably didn't happen, but it might have."
- Ken Follett
(Related: Events, Want)
"I don't think there's any great mystery to writing female characters, so long as you talk to them. If you lived in a monastery and never met any women, maybe it would be difficult."
- Ken Follett
(Related: Women, Mystery, Talk, Writing)
"You don't become the character."
- Peter Fonda
(Related: Character)
"But the same thing was true in the army. You slept in a barracks with all kinds of people of every nationality, every trade, every character and quality you can imagine, and that was a good experience."
- Shelby Foote
(Related: Experience, Quality, People, Character, Army, Nationality, Trade)
"I'm crazy about Grant: his character, his nature, his science in fighting and everything else. But I don't like the idea that he never accepted the blame for anything, always found someone else to blame for any mistake that was ever made, including blaming Prentiss for Shiloh."
- Shelby Foote
(Related: Science, Nature, Mistake, Idea, Character, Blame, Fighting)
"My character is meant to know nothing about rap, and not to like it very much, but I know about it, because my kids make me listen to it. There's some rap I do like very much. I like Eminem, Blackalicious."
- Harrison Ford
(Related: Character, Kids, Nothing, Rap)
"My goal was just to work regularly. I didn't ever expect to be rich or famous. I wanted to be a working character actor."
- Harrison Ford
(Related: Work, Character, Goal, Actor, Famous)
"Life is a series of experiences, each one of which makes us bigger, even though sometimes it is hard to realize this. For the world was built to develop character, and we must learn that the setbacks and grieves which we endure help us in our marching onward."
- Henry Ford
(Related: Life, Character, Help, World)
"The language fictional characters use is chosen for effect, at least if the author is concentrating."
- John M. Ford
(Related: Effect, Language)
"Because I just loved to spend two years of my life in the company of Andy Kaufman and other characters."
- Milos Forman
(Related: Life, Company, Years)
"The worst evil is - and that's the product of censorship - is the self-censorship, because that twists spines, that destroys my character because I have to think something else and say something else, I have to always control myself."
- Milos Forman
(Related: Character, Control, Censorship, Evil, Self)
"For our vanity is such that we hold our own characters immutable, and we are slow to acknowledge that they have changed, even for the better."
- E. M. Forster
(Related: Vanity)
"The four characteristics of humanism are curiosity, a free mind, belief in good taste, and belief in the human race."
- E. M. Forster
(Related: Belief, Curiosity, Humanism, Mind, Race, Taste)
"There are things that Scotsmen get and other people don't get in the dialogue. Scottish characters can be pinpointed by a phrase, targeted very quickly."
- Bill Forsyth
(Related: People)
"The Chinese, by their favourite system of dwarfing, contrive to make it, when only a foot and a half or two feet high, have all the characters of an aged cedar of Lebanon."
- Robert Fortune
(Related: Feet)
"He who knows no hardships will know no hardihood. He who faces no calamity will need no courage. Mysterious though it is, the characteristics in human nature which we love best grow in a soil with a strong mixture of troubles."
- Harry Emerson Fosdick
(Related: Love, Nature, Courage, Calamity, Faces, Human nature, Will)
"Living gives you a better understanding of life. I would hope that my characters have become deeper and more rounded personalities. Wider travels have given me considerably greater insight into how cultural differences affect not only people, but politics and art."
- Alan Dean Foster
(Related: Art, Politics, Life, People, Hope, Living, Understanding)
"In one book, CACHALOT, just for my own amusement, every character is based directly on someone I have known."
- Alan Dean Foster
(Related: Character, Amusement)
"Besides the mistakes that are pointed out, I love the way readers become involved with the characters. When readers start asking about character motivations instead of concentrating on the special effects, it means you're connecting with them on a personal level."
- Alan Dean Foster
(Related: Love, Character, Mistakes)
"I enjoy listening to classical music and heavy metal. I play basketball and try to go diving at least once a year. I don't really have hobbies in the traditional sense... I engage in too many activities already through the actions of my characters."
- Alan Dean Foster
(Related: Music, Actions, Basketball, Hobbies, Listening, Play, Sense)
"I have, in some ways, saved characters that have been marginalized by society by playing them - and having them still have dignity and still survive, still get through it."
- Jodie Foster
(Related: Society, Dignity)
"To me, Shakespeare uses the supernatural elements to reveal his character's inner desires and fears."
- John Foster
(Related: Character, Shakespeare, Supernatural)
"One of the strongest characteristics of genius is the power of lighting its own fire."
- John W. Foster
(Related: Power, Genius, Fire)
"It is the food which you furnish to your mind that determines the whole character of your life."
- Emmet Fox
(Related: Food, Life, Character, Mind)
"The proposition that humans have mental characteristics wholly absent in non-humans is inconsistent with the theory of evolution."
- Gary L. Francione
(Related: Evolution, Theory)
"Acting is an art form and you want to take roles that are challenged and it's more of a challenge I think to play dark characters. Not that I want to always play those, but it is a challenge and challenges are rewarding and fun."
- James Franco
(Related: Art, Acting, Challenge, Fun, Play, Want)
"The final forming of a person's character lies in their own hands."
- Anne Frank
(Related: Character, Lies)
"Parents can only give good advice or put them on the right paths, but the final forming of a person's character lies in their own hands."
- Anne Frank
(Related: Character, Advice, Lies, Parents, Right)
"How true Daddy's words were when he said: all children must look after their own upbringing. Parents can only give good advice or put them on the right paths, but the final forming of a person's character lies in their own hands."
- Anne Frank
(Related: Character, Advice, Children, Lies, Parents, Right, Words)
"I hope we will not so characterize religious people as being so narrow and so biased towards people not of their own religion that they cannot even work with them in this common cause to which you say they are committed."
- Barney Frank
(Related: Religion, Work, People, Hope, Being, Cause, Religious, Will)
"We knew we?d never find someone called Rock Hard, which was our ideal name, and for a while we toyed with the idea of just creating the character but never letting him get seen."
- James Frank
(Related: Idea, Character, Name)
"Old age and sickness bring out the essential characteristics of a man."
- Felix Frankfurter
(Related: Age, Man, Old, Sickness)
"As I look at President Bush, I think he will ultimately be judged as a man of extremely high character."
- Tommy Franks
(Related: Character, Man, President, Will)
"Changes have taken place since year one. When Caruso left, that was a big change. We've been able to adapt nicely. It's given us new opportunities for different characters and story lines."
- Dennis Franz
(Related: Change)
"I consider myself fortunate that I've been able to find a character that people have responded to."
- Dennis Franz
(Related: People, Character)
"I was molded, spent my time underneath a lot of goo. And then the bits and pieces were sculpted. It took probably 10 days to create each character after all those camera tests."
- Brendan Fraser
(Related: Time, Character, Tests)
"Burroughs was never really that pleased with the way popular culture and society treated his character. He tried to make a few movies of his own as a result, but they weren't very good."
- Brendan Fraser
(Related: Movies, Society, Character, Culture, Popular, Result)
"When you throw punches at actors, you stop, you pull it, and it looks like you pulled it. When you throw punches at cartoon characters, they are not there, so you can swing through. It looks like you really decked them."
- Brendan Fraser
(Related: Actors)
"I like the character roles. Somewhere back there I really came to the conclusion in my mind that the difference between acting and stardom was major. And that if you become a star, people are going to go to see you. If you remain an actor, they're going to go and see the story you're in."
- Morgan Freeman
(Related: People, Character, Acting, Actor, Difference, Mind)
"Still, it can be more effective to accomplish what you need to accomplish with the minimum effort. Watch Anthony Hopkins. He doesn't appear to be doing anything. He is so still that you can't see him working, but you are drawn into his character through his very stillness."
- Morgan Freeman
(Related: Character, Effort)
"The character of the artist doesn't enter into the nature of the art."
- Lucian Freud
(Related: Art, Nature, Character, Artist)
"The psychoanalysis of neurotics has taught us to recognize the intimate connection between wetting the bed and the character trait of ambition."
- Sigmund Freud
(Related: Character, Ambition, Bed, Connection, Psychoanalysis)
"Technique is of less interest than character and story."
- William Friedkin
(Related: Character, Interest)
"I tend to be attracted to characters who are up against a wall with very few alternatives. And the film then becomes an examination of how they cope with very few options. And that's, I guess, what interests me in terms of human behavior."
- William Friedkin
(Related: Behavior, Examination, Film, Options)
"Getting to meet people that I've admired my entire life, and getting to meet them in such a way where they're coming in to play completely different characters than I had ever seen them do is just wonderful."
- Will Friedle
(Related: Life, People, Play)
"I'd like to do voiceovers my whole life. I get to kind of create a character and go in and play."
- Will Friedle
(Related: Life, Character, Play)
"The doctors say it dates back to a film where I had these huge prosthetic breasts because my character was breast-feeding. The weight of them, and of the baby, did my back in."
- Anna Friel
(Related: Character, Baby, Doctors, Film, Weight)
"I play a character every day of my life, and I don't want to play a character as myself. They can judge me as an actress, not as a person. I'm not a spokeswoman for Anna."
- Anna Friel
(Related: Life, Character, Day, Play, Want)
"And the most important thing - apart from telling a good, believable story, and being a true character - is to be someone the audience will care about, even if you're playing a murderer or rapist."
- Anna Friel
(Related: Character, Being, Care, Will)
"From blood banking to the modern subway, from jazz to social justice, the contributions of African Americans have shaped and molded and influenced our national culture and our national character."
- Bill Frist
(Related: Character, African, Americans, Blood, Culture, Jazz, Justice)
"From slavery to segregation, we remember that America did not always live up to its ideals. In fact, we often fell far short of them. But we also learned that fundamental to our national character is the drive to live out the true meaning of our creed."
- Bill Frist
(Related: Character, America, Fact, Ideals, Meaning, Slavery)
"I really fought to make my character not a stereotype. I play a soap star with dyed blonde hair."
- Sadie Frost
(Related: Character, Hair, Play)
"I'm playing a very strong character, it's the story of the woman Polish Jews out of the Warsaw ghetto. I've just begun my weapons training and the SAS type training that's getting me fit."
- Sadie Frost
(Related: Character, Training, Weapons, Woman)
"You cannot dream yourself into a character; you must hammer and forge yourself one."
- James Anthony Froude
(Related: Dream, Character)
"I think I would have been so much in awe of the movie set, the people and what everybody's job was, that I don't know if I would be able to concentrate on the character."
- Daisy Fuentes
(Related: People, Character, Job)
"The character and history of each child may be a new and poetic experience to the parent, if he will let it."
- Margaret Fuller
(Related: Experience, History, Character, May, Will)
"Movement should be a counter, whether in action scenes or dialogue or whatever. It counters where your eye is going. This style thing, for me it's all fitted to the action, to the script, to the characters."
- Samuel Fuller
(Related: Action, Eye, Style)
"Every reader knows about the feeling that characters in books seem more real than real people."
- Cornelia Funke
(Related: People, Books, Feeling)
"This is a work of fiction. All the characters in it, human and otherwise, are imaginary, excepting only certain of the fairy folk, whom it might be unwise to offend by casting doubts on their existence. Or lack thereof."
- Neil Gaiman
(Related: Work, Existence, Fiction, Folk)
"The character is close to me, except that I haven't lived through those situations, so it's not completely me."
- Charlotte Gainsbourg
(Related: Character)
"All of the great leaders have had one characteristic in common: it was the willingness to confront unequivocally the major anxiety of their people in their time. This, and not much else, is the essence of leadership."
- John Kenneth Galbraith
(Related: Leadership, Time, People, Anxiety)
"The conspicuously wealthy turn up urging the character building values of the privation of the poor."
- John Kenneth Galbraith
(Related: Character, Values, Building, Poor)
"I'm a happy-go-lucky character. I'm not that miserable. But I can never let anyone into my world."
- Noel Gallagher
(Related: Character, World)
"Every part I play is just a variant of my own personality. No real character actor, of course, just me."
- Michael Gambon
(Related: Character, Actor, Personality, Play)
"The real ornament of woman is her character, her purity."
- Mohandas Gandhi
(Related: Character, Purity, Woman)
"I lost 30 pounds to play my character in 'The Mexican', but people don't take to skinny mafia men, and I don't feel right when I'm thin."
- James Gandolfini
(Related: Men, People, Character, Play, Right)
"The first thing I read was of my character on the phone talking to Sydney's fiance. Though short, it was so beautifully written, and it made me laugh. I thought if I wanted to play a character, this would be it."
- Victor Garber
(Related: Thought, Character, First, Play, Talking)
"You have to find something there that relates to the characters and reality on some level."
- Victor Garber
(Related: Reality)
"I find out more about Jack every week. Essentially, I'm the same character, but I'm having more fun this season because I'm doing more aliases, you know. I like the surprise of not knowing."
- Victor Garber
(Related: Character, Fun)
"If we had any nerve at all, if we had any real balls as a society, or whatever you need, whatever quality you need, real character, we would make an effort to really address the wrongs in this society, righteously."
- Jerry Garcia
(Related: Society, Quality, Character, Effort, Wrongs)
"The medieval hall house was very primitive when it became the characteristic form of dwelling of the landowner of the Middle Ages."
- Stephen Gardiner
"The exterior cannot do without the interior since it is from this, as from life, that it derives much of its inspiration and character."
- Stephen Gardiner
(Related: Life, Inspiration, Character)
"The characteristic of the hour is that the commonplace mind, knowing itself to be commonplace, has the assurance to proclaim the rights of the commonplace and to impose them wherever it will."
- Jose Ortega y Gasset
(Related: Rights, Mind, Will)
"Acting is not that far from mental disease: An actor works on splitting his character into others. It is like a kind of schizophrenia."
- Vittorio Gassman
(Related: Character, Acting, Actor)
"Faced with crisis, the man of character falls back on himself. He imposes his own stamp of action, takes responsibility for it, makes it his own."
- Charles de Gaulle
(Related: Action, Character, Crisis, Man, Responsibility)
"As with anything, you need to keep your creative juices flowing and keep the character interesting."
- Sarah Michelle Gellar
(Related: Character)
"There is nothing so fatal to character as half finished tasks."
- David Lloyd George
(Related: Character, Nothing)
"Essentially and most simply put, plot is what the characters do to deal with the situation they are in. It is a logical sequence of events that grow from an initial incident that alters the status quo of the characters."
- Elizabeth George
(Related: Events)
"Up to that point I never really knew what my character would be expected to do, and prior to accepting the job I had actually turned down the role three times before finally giving in."
- Gil Gerard
(Related: Character, Giving, Job)
"Then I got the offer to play Buck Rogers, but I turned it down thinking it was a cartoon character. Well I was wrong, it wasn't at all. So I read the script and decided I liked the character, it had a good concept."
- Gil Gerard
(Related: Character, Play, Thinking, Wrong)
"I made the character as much of myself as I could."
- Gil Gerard
(Related: Character)
"I brought my personality and sense of wonder and I think they wrote as much of my personality as they could. I do not go around kicking butt and saving the universe all the time but they tried to capture me as best as they could in the character."
- Gil Gerard
(Related: Time, Character, Personality, Sense, Universe, Wonder)
"There's really one character for every actor. The voyage is to find that one character."
- Richard Gere
(Related: Character, Actor)
"When you go in and do a cool, small character, it feels less like work and more like fun."
- Balthazar Getty
(Related: Work, Character, Fun)
"Style is the image of character."
- Edward Gibbon
(Related: Character, Style)
"Knowledge of the self is the mother of all knowledge. So it is incumbent on me to know my self, to know it completely, to know its minutiae, its characteristics, its subtleties, and its very atoms."
- Khalil Gibran
(Related: Mother, Knowledge, Atoms, Self)
"Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars."
- Khalil Gibran
(Related: Suffering)
"Well, if you look at the whole story, I mean there's only Jews and Romans in the story. I mean I just wanted to flesh that character out and make that a drama about the people around Christ when he was going through this passion."
- Mel Gibson
(Related: People, Character, Christ, Drama, Passion)
"Especially when you play a character for so many years, the character ends up reflecting a lot of who you are and I think I've changed a lot since then, but that represented a lot of who I was as a teenager."
- Sara Gilbert
(Related: Character, Play, Years)
"No, I feel like my personality probably influenced the character, more than the character influenced me."
- Sara Gilbert
(Related: Character, Personality)
"Success is always temporary. When all is said and one, the only thing you'll have left is your character."
- Vince Gill
(Related: Success, Character)
"When all is said and done the only thing you'll have left is your character."
- Vince Gill
(Related: Character)
"There are many qualities that make a great leader. But having strong beliefs, being able to stick with them through popular and unpopular times, is the most important characteristic of a great leader."
- Rudy Giuliani
(Related: Leader, Being, Beliefs, Popular)
"The real issue is not talent as an independent element, but talent in relationship to will, desire, and persistence. Talent without these things vanishes and even modest talent with those characteristics grows."
- Milton Glaser
(Related: Talent, Desire, Persistence, Will)
"The car is a character in the piece - I've never liked the car, I submitted to it's objectionable popularity."
- Paul M. Glaser
(Related: Car, Character, Popularity)
"I think good radio often uses the techniques of fiction: characters, scenes, a big urgent emotional question. And as in the best fiction, tone counts for a lot."
- Ira Glass
(Related: Fiction, Question)
"In terms of the character itself, I can't really say that I find anything really difficult. I enjoy the character so much I don't perceive difficulty in trying to be him. It's just a matter of how do we get there."
- Ron Glass
(Related: Character, Difficulty, Trying)
"A characteristic of older folksongs, in most cases, is that we don't know their composers or authors. Older folksongs were written often with no commercial purpose in mind. They were passed down by word of mouth, from generation to generation."
- Tom Glazer
(Related: Purpose, Composers, Mind, Word)
"I don't believe there is any character that one can play for that long and not bring a piece of you to it."
- Sharon Gless
(Related: Character, Play)
"Yeah, I've always been accused of having a sense of mischief and I'm very flattered that you say you can see it in the roles I play, because I think that's important, even if I do play intense characters, like especially Christine Cagney."
- Sharon Gless
(Related: Play, Sense)
"Well what do you do with a character like Christine Cagney and you tell her she can't have things?"
- Sharon Gless
(Related: Character)
"Just as the bird sings or the butterfly soars, because it is his natural characteristic, so the artist works."
- Alma Gluck
(Related: Artist)
"There's a certain way you stand to give yourself authority, which gives you the texture for the part. I chose that my character hadn't been married, he'd worked his way up the chain of command. For a small cameo role, I gave it a lot of thought."
- Mark Goddard
(Related: Thought, Character, Authority)
"The only person who had any control was Jonathan Harris. His character was so flamboyant that he was able to make things happen. My character was fairly one-dimensional, so I had my relationship with Dr. Smith and with the family."
- Mark Goddard
(Related: Family, Character, Control)
"And in fact I don't believe there is such a thing as a definitive picture of something. The land is a living, breathing thing and light changes its character every second of every day. That's why I love it so much."
- Fay Godwin
(Related: Love, Character, Day, Fact, Land, Light, Living)
"Nothing shows a man's character more than what he laughs at."
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
(Related: Character, Man, Nothing)
"Talent develops in quiet places, character in the full current of human life."
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
(Related: Life, Talent, Character, Quiet)
"Men show their character in nothing more clearly than what they think laughable."
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
(Related: Men, Character, Nothing)
"Character develops itself in the stream of life."
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
(Related: Life, Character)
"Character, in great and little things, means carrying through what you feel able to do."
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
(Related: Character)
"Character is formed in the stormy billows of the world."
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
(Related: Character, World)
"The formation of one's character ought to be everyone's chief aim."
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
(Related: Character)
"There is nothing in which people more betray their character than in what they laugh at."
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
(Related: People, Character, Nothing)
"It's nice to play a character that has a soulful, dependent, close relationship. It must mean my character is interesting in some way."
- Jeff Goldblum
(Related: Character, Play)
"This character's entirely invented, and the woman that I interviewed wouldn't recognize herself, or really anything about herself, in this book, which she hasn't read, because she doesn't read English."
- Arthur Golden
(Related: Character, English, Woman)
"To the indefinite, uncertain mind of the American radical the most contradictory ideas and methods are possible. The result is a sad chaos in the radical movement, a sort of intellectual hash, which has neither taste nor character."
- Emma Goldman
(Related: Ideas, Character, American, Chaos, Mind, Radical, Result, Taste)
"The higher mental development of woman, the less possible it is for her to meet a congenial male who will see in her, not only sex, but also the human being, the friend, the comrade and strong individuality, who cannot and ought not lose a single trait of her character."
- Emma Goldman
(Related: Sex, Development, Friend, Character, Being, Individuality, Will, Woman)
"Noble bold is an accident of fortune; noble actions characterize the great."
- Carlo Goldoni
(Related: Accident, Actions, Fortune)
"I want to keep doing different things. I'd like to do a more personal, dramatic movie next, I think. But as long as it's about characters and good writing and good parts for actors, that's what's important."
- Tony Goldwyn
(Related: Actors, Want, Writing)
"I don't want to do an action movie, because I've acted in them, and they're so boring to do, because they're so technical. The headache of that is daunting. But, if it were an action movie with really interesting characters, how great would that be?"
- Tony Goldwyn
(Related: Action, Want)
"It allows you to say things that sound very dramatic and get away with it. If you had characters in modern fiction say the same things as they're driving down the street in an Oldsmobile they'd sound ludicrous!"
- Terry Goodkind
(Related: Driving, Fiction, Sound)
"Ever since I was really little, I've had characters that were in my mind."
- Terry Goodkind
(Related: Mind)
"From Ernest Hemingway's stories, I learned to listen within my stories for what went unsaid by my characters."
- Nadine Gordimer
"I don't think you can discriminate against budgets, you know? I'm an actor, I guess, so I'm just trying to play as many characters as I can. If there's a character I think I can play, and they're going to let me do it, I'll do it whether it's $10 or $1 million or more."
- Ryan Gosling
(Related: Character, Actor, Budgets, Play, Trying)
"I just have my own taste, and I just try and stick with that. I'm just trying to play as many characters as I can for as long as I have an opportunity to."
- Ryan Gosling
(Related: Opportunity, Play, Taste, Trying)
"I just sort of take it from a character perspective, and I don't know if he was necessarily spiritual, but I do think he had hope. He was a character that was comfortable having hope in his life, and hope is faith."
- Ryan Gosling
(Related: Faith, Life, Character, Hope, Perspective, Spiritual)
"I try to play characters who are different from myself, so I feel like this character is someone who is really different. I actually think that if I did what he did in this movie, I would get a restraining order put against me."
- Ryan Gosling
(Related: Character, Order, Play)
"When they do bring on new people, it's good for the show. It's like getting a new toy. The writers enjoy it because it's a whole new character that they can write for, one that they aren't used to writing for. They can try different things."
- Mark-Paul Gosselaar
(Related: People, Character, Writers, Writing)
"I usually start with a repulsive character and go on from there."
- Chester Gould
(Related: Character)
"You play your character and it isn't right to step out of it. You have to stay in that character."
- Robert Goulet
(Related: Character, Play, Right)
"When I write now I do not invent situation, characters, or actions, but rather structures and discursive forms, textual groupings which are combined according to secret affinities among themselves, as in architecture or the plastic arts."
- Juan Goytisolo
(Related: Architecture, Actions, Now)
"The character of Rosie is based on a woman who used to live in the same apartment building I lived in many years ago. She's taken on a life of her own, of course."
- Sue Grafton
(Related: Life, Character, Building, Woman, Years)
"Only God Himself fully appreciates the influence of a Christian mother in the molding of character in her children."
- Billy Graham
(Related: God, Mother, Character, Christian, Children, Influence)
"When wealth is lost, nothing is lost; when health is lost, something is lost; when character is lost, all is lost."
- Billy Graham
(Related: Health, Character, Wealth, Nothing)
"I'm an actor and I've created a lasting and memorable character named Frasier, who is not me, but who most people think is. So when I have a chance to play something that's different, I embrace it because it's fun; also in this case, he's a memorable character."
- Kelsey Grammer
(Related: People, Character, Actor, Chance, Fun, Play)
"In creating the Harry Potter artwork, I try to bring a certain amount of realism and believability to the characters and setting, but still add an element of wonder and the unknown."
- Mary Grandpre
(Related: Realism, Wonder)
"It has been said that a nation reveals its character by the values it upholds."
- Kay Granger
(Related: Character, Values, Nation)
"Having removed the dictator, the allies have moved to put Iraqis in control of Iraq. Now, as they draft and ratify their Constitution, we will indeed see the character of a new Iraqi nation revealed through the principles it chooses to uphold."
- Kay Granger
(Related: Character, Control, Constitution, Draft, Iraq, Nation, Now, Principles, Will)
"Species can be recognized by their morphological characteristics and songs."
- Peter R. Grant
(Related: Songs)
"In God, the characteristics of men and women that we admire in men and women are combined. That's been a traditional Catholic teaching that God is the combination of opposites."
- Andrew Greeley
(Related: Men, Women, God, Opposites, Teaching)
"I write easily, let's put it that way. And in a novel particularly, the characters take over. And they tell me what to say and they tell me what they're doing. And I'm a third of the way into a novel and then I just let the characters finish it for me."
- Andrew Greeley
"Fame is a vapor, popularity an accident, and riches take wings. Only one thing endures and that is character."
- Horace Greeley
(Related: Character, Accident, Fame, Popularity)
"I'm naturally going to react to that and he'll bring out elements in my musical character that were lying dormant, because I'm relating what he's playing."
- Benny Green
(Related: Character, Lying)
"When people say 'You're so beautiful' it makes me want to kill myself! As an actress you want to be seen for what you do, for the characters you can play, otherwise I'd be a model."
- Eva Green
(Related: People, Play, Want)
"Our life is a book that writes itself and whose principal themes sometimes escape us. We are like characters in a novel who do not always understand what the author wants of them."
- Julien Green
(Related: Life)
"If you watch young children play, you will notice that they create games, characters, situations, whole worlds in which they immerse themselves with intense concentration."
- Daniel Greenberg
(Related: Children, Games, Play, Will)
"The moment comes when a character does or says something you hadn't thought about. At that moment he's alive and you leave it to him."
- Graham Greene
(Related: Thought, Character)
"The object of man's worship, whatever it be, will naturally be his standard of perfection. He clothes it with every attribute, belonging, in his view, to a perfect character; and this character he himself endeavors to attain."
- Simon Greenleaf
(Related: Character, Clothes, Man, Perfection, Will, Worship)
"Now I am an old hag, I get to play much more interesting characters."
- Joan Greenwood
(Related: Now, Old, Play)
"I remarked constantly, just at sunset, in these latitudes, that the eastern horizon was brilliantly illuminated with a kind of mock sunset. This in a short time disappeared, to be soon succeeded by another similar in character, but more faint."
- George Grey
(Related: Time, Character, Sunset)
"That's what he was saying, the civil rights movement - judge me for my character, not how black my skin is, not how yellow my skin is, how short I am, how tall or fat or thin; It's by my character."
- Pam Grier
(Related: Character, Civil rights, Saying, Skin)
"Well, thank you and that's for them, but for me, I want to look back at a body of work where when you do the research and you explore the psyche of a character, where she's been, where she is and where she's going."
- Pam Grier
(Related: Work, Character, Body, Research, Want)
"The thing that cracks me up is how these reality characters start out thrilled and excited just to be on television, and how they move to thinking they are as big as the Friends."
- Kathy Griffin
(Related: Friends, Reality, Television, Thinking)
"Looking back Little Lulu was an early feminist, but at the time I just thought she was a really feisty developed comic strip character."
- Bill Griffith
(Related: Time, Thought, Character)
"My first character was Mr. Toad."
- Bill Griffith
(Related: Character, First)
"But now with technology I could sit down and do a bunch of character drawings and scan them into a computer, and the computer using my exact style could bring it into life, where it would have been edited by various human beings before."
- Bill Griffith
(Related: Technology, Life, Character, Computer, Now, Style)
"It's the misfortune of German authors that not a single one of them dares to expose his true character. Everyone thinks that he has to be better than he is."
- Franz Grillparzer
(Related: Character, Misfortune)
"Ron was always my favorite character, because I feel like I relate to him, like we've both got red hair, we both like sweets, we've both got lots of brothers and sisters."
- Rupert Grint
(Related: Character, Brothers, Favorite, Hair, Sisters)
"The characters in the book grow up with us. My voice has broken as well."
- Rupert Grint
(Related: Voice)
"It's a funny show. The characters are surprisingly likable, given how ugly they are. We've got this huge cast of characters that we can move around. And over the last few seasons, we've explored some of the secondary characters' personal lives a bit more."
- Matt Groening
(Related: Funny, Seasons, Ugly)
"Since I was there in the very beginning, I know the history of the characters. So, I make comments about the tone and sometimes remind the writers that we've done that before."
- Matt Groening
(Related: History, Beginning, Writers)
"And he said that he wrote the Bond character based on the character of David Niven. That's how he saw Bond."
- Val Guest
(Related: Character)
"In hard-core science fiction in which characters are responding to a change in environment, caused by nature or the universe or technology, what readers want to see is how people cope, and so the character are present to cope, or fail to cope."
- James Gunn
(Related: Change, Nature, Science, Technology, People, Character, Environment, Fiction, Present, Universe, Want)
"There is no winning or losing, but rather the value is in the experience of imagining yourself as a character in whatever genre you're involved in, whether it's a fantasy game, the Wild West, secret agenst or whatever else. You get to sort of vicariously experience those things."
- Gary Gygax
(Related: Experience, Character, Winning, Fantasy, Losing, Value)
"Movements born in hatred very quickly take on the characteristics of the thing they oppose."
- J. S. Habgood
(Related: Hatred)
"I do not like assassins, or men of low character."
- Gene Hackman
(Related: Men, Character)
"You've either got to find a way to make your continuing characters insteresting without making them maudlin or overwrought, or you've got to put more emphasis on the suspects."
- Jane Haddam
"I tend to come up with people more than situations - most of my books start with a character."
- Jane Haddam
(Related: People, Character, Books)
"It's just so much fun to make up characters, situations, and everything else about a story. I have so much freedom and flexibility to do whatever I want."
- Margaret Haddix
(Related: Flexibility, Freedom, Fun, Want)
"It is the addition of strangeness to beauty that constitutes the romantic character in art."
- Walter Hagen
(Related: Art, Beauty, Character, Romantic)
"We all have these tendencies in us that could go this way or that. I think that's the real key in writing. To look at a character without judgment."
- Paul Haggis
(Related: Character, Judgment, Key, Writing)
"We give you characters we'd feel very comfortable judging, and then go: 'Oh yeah? Watch this'."
- Paul Haggis
"People will always consider me a cartoon character, a bimbo. They will never give me credit."
- Jessica Hahn
(Related: People, Character, Credit, Will)
"Racism is taught in our society, it is not automatic. It is learned behavior toward persons with dissimilar physical characteristics."
- Alex Haley
(Related: Society, Behavior, Racism)
"The happiness of every country depends upon the character of its people, rather than the form of its government."
- Thomas Chandler Haliburton
(Related: Government, Happiness, People, Character, Country)
"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
(Related: Life, Work, Development, Character, Want)
"In the years since I worked with John Hughes, there were many years where I literally had hundred of doors slammed in my face because I wasn't that kid anymore, and I wasn't a character actor, and I wasn't a leading man, and I wasn't whatever Hollywood was looking for."
- Anthony Michael Hall
(Related: Character, Actor, Hollywood, Leading, Man, Years)
"The audience has to understand that if the film is going to have any meaning for them. If they are going to empathize with the characters, they have to visualize the process of concentration involved in making every move."
- Conrad Hall
(Related: Film, Meaning)
"I saw Tequila Sunrise as a romantic picture with complex, bigger than life characters."
- Conrad Hall
(Related: Life, Romantic)
"I think if I weren't so beautiful, maybe, I'd have more character."
- Jerry Hall
(Related: Character)
"I love doing theater so much - being in front of an audience and seeing how a character grows and develops with every performance."
- Jerry Hall
(Related: Love, Character, Performance, Being, Theater)
"I think anybody would be hard pressed not to relate to at least one of the characters, because there's so many different multifaceted people populating this crazy world."
- Michael C. Hall
(Related: People, World)
"My key interest in choosing scripts is character-driven stories, because there are so many stories that sacrifice character for plot."
- Lasse Hallstrom
(Related: Sacrifice, Character, Interest, Key)
"My films do have characters who have trouble escaping the world around them."
- Lasse Hallstrom
(Related: Trouble, World)
"I am always more interested in performance and character depiction, and my direction says as much."
- Lasse Hallstrom
(Related: Character, Performance, Direction)
"He has the common feeling of his profession. He enjoys a statement twice as much if it appears in fine print, and anything that turns up in a footnote... takes on the character of divine revelation."
- Margaret Halsey
(Related: Character, Feeling, Profession)
"Whenever I dwell for any length of time on my own shortcomings, they gradually begin to seem mild, harmless, rather engaging little things, not at all like the staring defects in other people's characters."
- Margaret Halsey
(Related: Time, People)
"Humility is not my forte, and whenever I dwell for any length of time on my own shortcomings, they gradually begin to seem mild, harmless, rather engaging little things, not at all like the staring defects in other people's characters."
- Margaret Halsey
(Related: Time, People, Humility)
"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
(Related: Sex, Development, Character, Books, Violence, Want)
"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
(Related: Sex, Development, Character)
"Never argue with your characters; they know themselves better than you do."
- Laurell K. Hamilton
"My characters surprise me constantly. My characters are like my friends - I can give them advice, but they don't have to take it. If your characters are real, then they surprise you, just like real people."
- Laurell K. Hamilton
(Related: People, Advice, Friends)
"Love, hope, fear, faith - these make humanity; These are its sign and note and character."
- Robert Browning Hamilton
(Related: Faith, Love, Fear, Character, Hope, Humanity)
"I get to play a great character while working with great actors and great directors on a great show."
- Harry Hamlin
(Related: Character, Actors, Play)
"Aaron Echolls is one of the best characters that I've ever played."
- Harry Hamlin
"It is easy to be nice, even to an enemy - from lack of character."
- Dag Hammarskjold
(Related: Character, Enemy)
"I find that when I play reality-based characters, it is only as fun for me if I have a lot of time to do research. If I don't it just isn't exciting but if I do, it can be fun because I can learn about that person and the world that they live in and I can become somebody else."
- Daryl Hannah
(Related: Time, Fun, Play, Reality, Research, World)
"Sometimes it's a character you want to play or a story you want to tell. Sometimes it's just to pay the bills."
- Daryl Hannah
(Related: Character, Play, Want)
"I think you need people of principle, of character, that are leaders, that take stands on important tough issues that will affect the future of this country."
- Sean Hannity
(Related: People, Character, Country, Future, Leaders, Will)
"I'm just a pack mule. I've played leads and I've played character roles. Any actress in Hollywood will tell you as your age climbs, the leads thin."
- Marcia Gay Harden
(Related: Age, Character, Hollywood, Will)
"I love it when ugliness is beautiful. I love character flaws."
- Marcia Gay Harden
(Related: Love, Character, Flaws, Ugliness)
"The power of faith will often shine forth the most when the character is naturally weak."
- Augustus Hare
(Related: Faith, Power, Character, Will)
"What a person praises is perhaps a surer standard, even than what he condemns, of his own character, information and abilities."
- Augustus Hare
(Related: Character, Information)
"I'm in the business to push it. I'm not likely to be attracted to characters I've already done."
- Mark Harmon
(Related: Business)
"I think you always learn something in every character you play onstage, either personally or creatively."
- Jared Harris
(Related: Character, Play)
"It's hard to leave behind scenes and characters I am in love with."
- John Harrison
(Related: Love)
"When you watch it, you're like, Wow. I look like that. But it doesn't feel like that at all. It was about communicating with Gale Harold and getting across what I wanted to say about the character."
- Randy Harrison
(Related: Character)
"The whole character of Justin and the club life he lives - I have no experience with it. It's really foreign to me, which is annoying, but that's just how it is."
- Randy Harrison
(Related: Experience, Life, Character)
"I think the sense of community that exists with all the characters - that's the answer. The fact that they have found a family in their friends. It does give some depth and meaning to their lives."
- Randy Harrison
(Related: Family, Community, Fact, Friends, Meaning, Sense)
"I was very limited in what I could do with flying saucers, because they're just a metal disc. I had to try and put character in as if they were intelligently guided."
- Ray Harryhausen
(Related: Character, Flying)
"Few characters in history are indispensable."
- Albert Bushnell Hart
(Related: History)
"In the Emperor's New Clothes, they got a different celebrity to do each voice. They drew up a picture of each character and then each actor wrote their own part."
- Melissa Joan Hart
(Related: Character, Actor, Celebrity, Clothes, Voice)
"You read about somebody, and it doesn't really matter whether or not they really exist - the point is that you get into them like real characters."
- John Hartford
"The one thing I could do was voices and impersonations and weird characters, and there was really no call for that, except on Saturday Night Live."
- Phil Hartman
(Related: Night)
"I especially object to having my character assassinated by reference to events from my past which bear absolutely no relationship to the question of who the anthrax killer is."
- Steven Hatfill
(Related: Character, Events, Past, Question)
"I would like any type of character that I could be creative with and totally delve into."
- Noah Hathaway
(Related: Character)
"Good guy' or 'bad guy', hero or anti hero; doesn't matter to me, what role I play, only the character have something magical."
- Rutger Hauer
(Related: Character, Play)
"That appropriation of resources and the transformation of them into goods and services through the European production system characterized, and characterizes to this day, all industrial systems including the information age."
- Paul Hawken
(Related: Age, Day, Information, Production)
"For the last 20 years of my life, I've had the mantra to do amazing parts with amazing people in amazing projects, so I'm attracted to good story, writing and character and good people. That's what I'm always searching for and I don't think that's ever going to change."
- John Hawkes
(Related: Change, Life, People, Character, Projects, Writing, Years)
"I honestly can't characterize my style in words. It seems that whatever comes to me naturally, I play."
- Coleman Hawkins
(Related: Play, Style, Words)
"There's a fine line between character building and soul destroying."
- Colin Hay
(Related: Soul, Character, Building)
"I regard it in fact as the great advantage of the mathematical technique that it allows us to describe, by means of algebraic equations, the general character of a pattern even where we are ignorant of the numerical values which will determine its particular manifestation."
- Friedrich August von Hayek
(Related: Character, Values, Fact, Will)
"There's a lot about the character. It doesn't always happen, but there are some characters you really create a relationship with, almost as if they were your friend. And you never get into their heads again or think like them."
- Salma Hayek
(Related: Friend, Character)
"For my wrap present, Colin Farrell gave me a first edition book. I got so involved with this character and I was so sad when the movie was over that when I got home and I tried to read the book I got really emotional and I started crying."
- Salma Hayek
(Related: Home, Character, First, Present)
"How I would describe my characters is absolutely different from how I would describe myself."
- Salma Hayek
"I also have a film coming up called Breaking Up, and my part in that was not written for a Latina, and my character is not particularly pretty or sexy or exotic."
- Salma Hayek
(Related: Character, Film, Pretty)
"And I'd like to believe that's true, you know, kind of showing gay people in this kind of light and - where it's not about that, it's just about the characters for the first time, like those shows were."
- Sean Hayes
(Related: Time, People, First, Gay, Light)
"Chavez made a compete fool of himself in front of the entire world while giving the U.N. a black eye. But the real losers are the Venezuelan people who have to put up with this unstable character every day."
- J. D. Hayworth
(Related: People, Character, Day, Eye, Fool, Giving, World)
"In general, I enjoy athletes who have a strong character who let their abilities speak for themselves."
- Eric Heiden
(Related: Character, Athletes)
"I will not say that women have no character; rather, they have a new one every day."
- Heinrich Heine
(Related: Women, Character, Day, Will)
"You all know how powerful and varied are the effects of which steam engines are capable; with them has really begun the great development of industry which has characterised our century before all others."
- Hermann von Helmholtz
(Related: Development)
"When writing a novel a writer should create living people; people not characters. A character is a caricature."
- Ernest Hemingway
(Related: People, Character, Living, Writer, Writing)
"You have the massive world that was created by Marvel, and then you have these very intimate actors around you. There was as much character work on this as there would be on a little independent film. So, I felt very fortunate in that sense."
- Chris Hemsworth
(Related: Work, Character, Actors, Film, Sense, World)
"You get the part, sign the contract and start to realize millions of people follow this guy and know more about your character than you do."
- Chris Hemsworth
(Related: People, Character)
"Not often do you approach a character where people know more about him than you do."
- Chris Hemsworth
(Related: People, Character)
"On the contrary, the characteristic element of the present situation is that economic questions have finally and irrevocably invaded the domain of public life and politics."
- Arthur Henderson
(Related: Life, Politics, Present, Public, Questions)
"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
(Related: Development, Character, Horror)
"It's really interesting that whenever you do something that is so out of character, like having an emotional outburst, that you don't get in trouble."
- Beth Henley
(Related: Character, Trouble)
"I'm a character actor at heart."
- Shuler Hensley
(Related: Heart, Character, Actor)
"Actually the copies of characters is something I don't particularly like to talk about in articles but just for your information, most characters there's only one."
- Jim Henson
(Related: Information, Talk)
"If you're doing a large, complicated character with radio controls, it might take a number of people several months to make it and if you're talking about a quick little hand puppet, it could be made in 2 days, so there's enormous range there, and no real easy generalities."
- Jim Henson
(Related: People, Character, Months, Quick, Talking)
"Evolution acts slowly. Our psychological characteristics today are those that promoted reproductive success in the ancestral environmen."
- Keith Henson
(Related: Success, Evolution, Today)
"To keep your character intact you cannot stoop to filthy acts. It makes it easier to stoop the next time."
- Katharine Hepburn
(Related: Time, Character)
"A man's character is his fate."
- Heraclitus
(Related: Character, Fate, Man)
"A man's character is his guardian divinity."
- Heraclitus
(Related: Character, Divinity, Man)
"Character is destiny."
- Heraclitus
(Related: Character, Destiny)
"Good character is not formed in a week or a month. It is created little by little, day by day. Protracted and patient effort is needed to develop good character."
- Heraclitus
(Related: Character, Day, Effort)
"I've sort of dealt with the characters' lives more; particularly the women characters."
- Gilbert Hernandez
(Related: Women)
"Comics as art. I do comics as comics, and my opportunity to tell stories. Simple. Basic. Let the characters have the excitement, not the package. That's where I come from."
- Jaime Hernandez
(Related: Art, Opportunity, Excitement)
"But in film you always watch situations or stories that you really have no relation to. A lot of times just because there's no personal connection doesn't mean you can't connect with the film or the characters in the film."
- Jay Hernandez
(Related: Connection, Film)
"I like the sensibility of Australian film a lot and the crews are fantastic. Great characters, wonderful people and no line between - I think in Hollywood they have this line between actors and crew a lot, and that just didn't exist, which I really appreciated."
- Barbara Hershey
(Related: People, Actors, Film, Hollywood, Sensibility)
"People who work on the user interface side need to have empathy as a key characteristic. But if you are writing device drivers you don't really need to understand humans so well."
- Andy Hertzfeld
(Related: Work, People, Empathy, Key, Writing)
"The character of a people may be ruined by charity."
- Theodor Herzl
(Related: People, Character, Charity, May)
"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
(Related: Eyes)
"The universal narrator knows all and can enter a character's head any time he chooses."
- Arthur Herzog
(Related: Time, Character)
"People with courage and character always seem sinister to the rest."
- Hermann Hesse
(Related: People, Character, Courage, Rest)
"To be honest, I think for part of my late teens my character didn't really develop very much. I was in a state of cold storage."
- Damon Hill
(Related: Character, State)
"Jackson went from the professor's chair to the officer's saddle. He carried with him the very elements of character which made him odious as a teacher; but I never saw him in an arbitrary mood."
- Daniel H. Hill
(Related: Character)
"Persistence is to the character of man as carbon is to steel."
- Napoleon Hill
(Related: Character, Man, Persistence)
"It's really about, oh come on, this guy wouldn't say that or he wouldn't do that, you know, it's about the characters, about the story, about the situation."
- Walter Hill
"My character had been in the chair for seven years. He had gone through his anger, depression, drug and alcohol abuse. He had gone through everything, now he was up, he was happy, he was filled with his dream."
- Gregory Hines
(Related: Anger, Dream, Character, Abuse, Alcohol, Depression, Now, Years)
"My characters are fictional. I get ideas from real people, sometimes, but my characters always exist only in my head."
- S. E. Hinton
(Related: People, Ideas)
"If you're playing the character, you could say to yourself in 16 different ways, What if that didn't bother me? What if I knew exactly what he was talking about? What if I didn't get excited?"
- Judd Hirsch
(Related: Character, Talking)
"When an actor comes to me and wants to discuss his character, I say, 'It's in the script.' If he says, 'But what's my motivation?, ' I say, 'Your salary.'"
- Alfred Hitchcock
(Related: Motivation, Character, Actor)
"Animals are stylized characters in a kind of old saga - stylized because even the most acute of them have little leeway as they play out their parts."
- Edward Hoagland
(Related: Animals, Old, Play)
"If you look to lead, invest at least 40% of your time managing yourself - your ethics, character, principles, purpose, motivation, and conduct. Invest at least 30% managing those with authority over you, and 15% managing your peers."
- Dee Hock
(Related: Time, Motivation, Character, Purpose, Authority, Ethics, Principles)
"Besides, it doesn't make any sense to have these characters living in the year 3000 when all their points of reference are from the pop culture of the 80's and the 90's."
- Joel Hodgson
(Related: Culture, Living, Sense)
"After a while, the characters I'm writing begin to feel real to me. That's when I know I'm heading in the right direction."
- Alice Hoffman
(Related: Direction, Right, Writing)
"All the characters in my books are imagined, but all have a bit of who I am in them - much like the characters in your dreams are all formed by who you are."
- Alice Hoffman
(Related: Dreams, Books)
"Well first of all, it's hard to shoot a movie and break for a long time and then come back and do, in a sense, one of the biggest scenes that each character had."
- Dustin Hoffman
(Related: Time, Character, First, Sense)
"A university's essential character is that of being a center of free inquiry and criticism - a thing not to be sacrificed for anything else."
- Richard Hofstadter
(Related: Character, Being, Criticism, University)
"The delicate thing about the university is that it has a mixed character, that it is suspended between its position in the eternal world, with all its corruption and evils and cruelties, and the splendid world of our imagination."
- Richard Hofstadter
(Related: Imagination, Character, Corruption, University, World)
"Man looks in the abyss, there's nothing staring back at him. At that moment, man finds his character. And that is what keeps him out of the abyss."
- Hal Holbrook
(Related: Character, Man, Nothing)
"Fortunately and unfortunately, people don't see me as a character actor. They see me as a leading man or nothing, which makes it really hard to get work."
- Josh Holloway
(Related: Work, People, Character, Actor, Leading, Man, Nothing)
"I get to actually experience what it would be like to be a psycho, which is not a fun one, or to be a cowboy, or to be a weird character of some sort. For me, it suits me. It suits my personality. I'm an emotional kind of person anyway."
- Josh Holloway
(Related: Experience, Character, Fun, Personality)
"A pun does not commonly justify a blow in return. But if a blow were given for such cause, and death ensued, the jury would be judges both of the facts and of the pun, and might, if the latter were of an aggravated character, return a verdict of justifiable homicide."
- Oliver Wendell Holmes
(Related: Death, Character, Cause, Facts, Judges, Jury)
"I type even faster than I talk. I'm very proud of that. I type so fast. And I have to because the characters are living in real time and I've got to keep up with them. It's a miracle they even give me a royalty."
- Rupert Holmes
(Related: Time, Living, Royalty, Talk)
"The true test of character is not how much we know how to do, but how we behave when we don't know what to do."
- John W. Holt, Jr.
(Related: Character)
"This is not a showman's job. I will not step out of character."
- Herbert Hoover
(Related: Character, Job, Will)
"I think all those actors from that generation, like Bogart - they were wonderful actors. They didn't act. They just came on and they did it, and the characters were wonderful."
- Anthony Hopkins
(Related: Act, Actors)
"I directed 24's pilot. I felt we should follow the characters around as if we were a documentary crew, using available light, hand-held cameras, split screens, sound that isn't always what it should be, to suit the reality of the premise."
- Stephen Hopkins
(Related: Light, Reality, Sound)
"After all, we are not French and never can be, and any attempt to be so is to deny our inheritance and to try to impose upon ourselves a character that can be nothing but a veneer upon the surface."
- Edward Hopper
(Related: Character, Inheritance, Nothing)
"In general it can be said that a nation's art is greatest when it most reflects the character of its people."
- Edward Hopper
(Related: Art, People, Character, Nation)
"Mike Leigh encourages you to choose a person that you know to base your character on. You write a whole list of people that you know and you go through that list in great depth with him. And then he chooses one of those people from your list."
- Jane Horrocks
(Related: People, Character)
"Life is the most versatile thing under the sun; and in the pursuit of life and character the author who works in a groove works in blinkers."
- Laurence Housman
(Related: Life, Character, Pursuit, Sun)
"It was such a paradox for me that the only thing I know how to do is act, but that the first thing I abandoned while writing were the characters."
- Bryce Dallas Howard
(Related: Act, First, Paradox, Writing)
"You just drop a character like this that and the other and it's done."
- Terrence Howard
(Related: Character)
"Every role you play is literally - and I've said this before - every single role that you play, the only way you can connect to that character is because that was a piece of you that was scattered around that yard, almost like we got caught up in some whirlwind."
- Terrence Howard
(Related: Character, Play)
"Character is power; it makes friends, draws patronage and support and opens the way to wealth, honor and happiness."
- John Howe
(Related: Happiness, Power, Character, Wealth, Friends, Honor, Support)
"Diversity in the world is a basic characteristic of human society, and also the key condition for a lively and dynamic world as we see today."
- Jinato Hu
(Related: Society, Diversity, Key, Today, World)
"Many a man's reputation would not know his character if they met on the street."
- Elbert Hubbard
(Related: Character, Man, Reputation)
"Character is the result of two things: mental attitude and the way we spend our time."
- Elbert Hubbard
(Related: Time, Attitude, Character, Result)
"It would be futile to attempt to fit women into a masculine pattern of attitudes, skills and abilities and disastrous to force them to suppress their specifically female characteristics and abilities by keeping up the pretense that there are no differences between the sexes."
- Arianna Huffington
(Related: Women, Force, Sexes)
"We can't put up a protectionist dam on our own against the neo-liberal world market either. However, we can try, together with our European partners, to maintain the social character of Europe as much as possible."
- Johan Huizinga
(Related: Character, Europe, World)
"Only what we have wrought into our character during life can we take with us."
- Karl Wilhelm Von Humboldt
(Related: Life, Character)
"Character is the result of a system of stereotyped principals."
- David Hume
(Related: Character, Result)
"I was a little bit wary of playing Nicholas. In the script, which I think is true of the novel and the film, he's the only character not singing and dancing in a musical style. Playing someone who is the personification of good is a little difficult."
- Charlie Hunnam
(Related: Character, Dancing, Film, Singing, Style)
"I watch these actors who when you go to buy a pint of milk you see them smiling on the cover of 20 magazines. Then when you see them in a film it's hard to believe the character because you just see them everywhere."
- Charlie Hunnam
(Related: Character, Actors, Film)
"It seemed to me... that the only valid people to deal with crime were cops, and I would like to make the lead character, rather than a single person, a squad of cops."
- Evan Hunter
(Related: People, Character, Crime)
"For the source of any characteristic so widespread and uniform as this adaptation to environment we must go back to the very beginning of the human race."
- Ellsworth Huntington
(Related: Beginning, Environment, Race)
"The Greeks already understood that there was more interest in portraying an unusual character than a usual character - that is the purpose of films and theatre."
- Isabelle Huppert
(Related: Character, Purpose, Interest, Theatre)
"I like to take these unusual characters and then make them as normal as possible, because we all know that the tragedy and the abnormal always hides itself behind the normal."
- Isabelle Huppert
(Related: Tragedy)
"But Germany will always suffer, I fear, from the intensely dramatic character of the crimes of the Third Reich."
- Douglas Hurd
(Related: Fear, Character, Germany, Will)
"Nudes are the greatest to paint. Everything you can find in a landscape or a still life or anything else is there: darkness and light, character dimension, texture. I painted heads too, of course."
- John Hurt
(Related: Life, Character, Darkness, Light)
"If you're lucky, and not a lot of actors are these days, you get the chance to create a character."
- William Hurt
(Related: Character, Actors, Chance)
"I like it when you read a script and there's the part that you show to the other characters and then there's the part that only the audience knows."
- Anjelica Huston
"I - and there are hundreds of thousands of Irishmen who felt on this subject as I do - have always liked my Celtic countrymen and disliked the English nation; it is a national trait of character, and I cannot help it."
- Douglas Hyde
(Related: Character, English, Help, Nation)
"If I had been born with an aggressive character, then maybe my palmares would have been longer."
- Miguel Indurain
(Related: Character)
"I don't much believe in the idea of characters. I write with words, that is all. Whether those words are put in the mouth of this or that character does not matter to me."
- Guillermo Cabrera Infante
(Related: Idea, Character, Words)
"The relationship between reader and characters is very difficult. It is even more peculiar than the relationship between the writer and his characters."
- Guillermo Cabrera Infante
(Related: Writer)
"That is what I define as a novel: something that has a beginning, a middle and an end, with characters and a plot that sustain interest from the first sentence to the last. But that is not what I do at all."
- Guillermo Cabrera Infante
(Related: Beginning, End, First, Interest)
"The proper time to influence the character of a child is about a hundred years before he is born."
- Dean Inge
(Related: Time, Character, Influence, Years)
"The story line was done in a way that's organic and was doled out very slowly in little bites. We think that's authentic for this character, that her feelings are very deeply buried or she never felt them."
- Laura Innes
(Related: Feelings, Character)
"It was sort of that in-between area when people don't talk about their personal lives. That's the kind of life I think Kerry would be living now if it weren't for the Lopez character sort of outing her."
- Laura Innes
(Related: Life, People, Character, Living, Now, Talk)
"And it's sort of an old-fashioned ER, in that it's very much about the medicine, and how these people cope. There's very little about the personal lives of the characters."
- Laura Innes
(Related: People, Medicine, Old)
"It may, however, be said that the level of experience to which concepts are inapplicable cannot yield any knowledge of a universal character, for concepts alone are capable of being socialized."
- Muhammed Iqbal
(Related: Experience, Knowledge, Character, Being, May, Yield)
"I think I would not be described as a character actor in that I don't take on characteristics which are very alien to me."
- Jeremy Irons
(Related: Character, Actor)
"I succeeded on sort of chutzpah and charm. No technique at all, didn't know what I was doing, but it worked and the character suited me."
- Jeremy Irons
(Related: Character, Charm)
"I've always been a fan of the 19th century novel, of the novel that is plotted, character-driven, and where the passage of time is almost as central to the novel as a major minor character, the passage of time and its effect on the characters in the story."
- John Irving
(Related: Time, Character, Effect)
"Sometimes you have to go places with characters and emotions within yourself you don't want to do, but you have a duty to the story and as a storyteller to do it."
- Hugh Jackman
(Related: Duty, Emotions, Want)
"I really was a fan of his and always have been - his writing especially, you know? I think people a lot of times overlook that part, because he kind of got into that party character so heavy."
- Alan Jackson
(Related: People, Character, Party, Writing)
"It is no accident that I made Cartoon Town a simple little village - in many ways it mirrored my home town. And, yes, many of my puppet characters took on some of the more eccentric characteristics of people I knew there."
- William Jackson
(Related: Home, People, Accident)
"The puppet characters were combinations of people I had known and to some degree aspects of my own personality. Weird was based on someone I knew in Chicago. Dirty Dragon was based on a good friend I had in Indianapolis."
- William Jackson
(Related: People, Friend, Chicago, Personality)
"Real-life people are often the hardest to play, people that you recreate who have actually lived, because you have to live up to people's knowledge of those characters."
- Derek Jacobi
(Related: People, Knowledge, Play)
"There's never been any game plan or thread through my career. It's just happened that I've ricocheted from one interesting character to another."
- Derek Jacobi
(Related: Character, Career)
"I don't think he's permanently affected me except in the sense that I miss him. I miss being him. Or trying to be him. He is one of a gallery of characters that have had an impact on my career and therefore my life."
- Derek Jacobi
(Related: Life, Being, Career, Sense, Trying)
"I think that each character has fascinated and interested me enough to want to play him."
- Derek Jacobi
(Related: Character, Play, Want)
"I shall miss all the people in it and the great fun we had doing it. I enjoyed playing the character very much. It was a very, very special character and a very special series. And the camaraderie of it all. I loved it."
- Derek Jacobi
(Related: People, Character, Fun)
"At first acoustics attributed to the different sounds only a limited number of characteristic features."
- Roman Jakobson
(Related: First)
"The interesting part of the process is developing the character, you know, why did he become that? Why is the guy a murderer, or why is this guy a pervert, or whatever he is. So that's the fun part for me to delve into the abyss."
- Brion James
(Related: Character, Fun)
"I'm a character actor, so I don't take the hit if the movie's bad, the lead does. So, I don't want to be the lead. He takes the hit, I don't."
- Brion James
(Related: Character, Actor, Want)
"I did 125 films, and over 100 television shows, and you've never seen the same character twice."
- Brion James
(Related: Character, Television)
"One of the surest signs of the estimated changes in the consciousness of the American proletariat is to be found in the character of the demands now being put forward by the leadership."
- C. L. R. James
(Related: Leadership, Character, American, Being, Consciousness, Now)
"What is character but the determination of incident? What is incident but the illustration of character?"
- Henry James
(Related: Character, Determination)
"The hell to be endured hereafter, of which theology tells, is no worse than the hell we make for ourselves in this world by habitually fashioned our characters in the wrong way."
- William James
(Related: Hell, Theology, World, Wrong)
"Individuality is founded in feeling; and the recesses of feeling, the darker, blinder strata of character, are the only places in the world in which we catch real fact in the making, and directly perceive how events happen, and how work is actually done."
- William James
(Related: Work, Character, Events, Fact, Feeling, Individuality, World)
"No matter how full a reservoir of maxims one may possess, and no matter how good one's sentiments may be, if one has not taken advantage of every concrete opportunity to act, one's character may remain entirely unaffected for the better."
- William James
(Related: Opportunity, Character, Maxims, May)
"It is well for the world that in most of us, by the age of thirty, the character has set like plaster, and will never soften again."
- William James
(Related: Age, Character, Will, World)
"To me, it's the kiss of death when you start winking at the audience as an actor. I just never liked it. I don't like it when we do monologues, looking into the character."
- Thomas Jane
(Related: Death, Kiss, Character, Actor)
"Harrison Ford - one of my favorite actors - has a wonderful sense of character and depth and uniqueness to him, yet he's able to just deliver the lines without putting any English on it."
- Thomas Jane
(Related: Character, Actors, English, Favorite, Sense, Uniqueness)
"It's never been important to be a huge star or to have some breakout role. If you're the lead, you get a lot more screen time and you get a lot more chances to develop that character more thoroughly than you would if you do it in a little supporting part."
- Famke Janssen
(Related: Time, Character)
"I start with actors that I know personally or I know their work, and there are things about their work or their presence or their own personality that make a character, that exaggerates some qualities and suppresses other qualities. It's always a real collaboration for me."
- Jim Jarmusch
(Related: Work, Character, Actors, Collaboration, Personality)
"I love rehearsing because in rehearsals there are no mistakes, nothing is wrong, some things apply or lead you to focus on the character and the things that don't apply are equally valuable because they lead you to towards what does."
- Jim Jarmusch
(Related: Love, Character, Focus, Mistakes, Nothing, Wrong)
"I wanted to make an Indian character who wasn't either a) the savage that must be eliminated, the force of nature that's blocking the way for industrial progress, or b) the noble innocent that knows all and is another cliche. I wanted him to be a complicated human being."
- Jim Jarmusch
(Related: Nature, Progress, Character, Being, Force)
"I like to rehearse with the actors scenes that are not in the script and will not be in the film because what we're really doing is trying to establish their character, and good acting to me is about reacting."
- Jim Jarmusch
(Related: Character, Acting, Actors, Film, Trying, Will)
"I like doing them and they're ridiculous and the actors can improvise a lot, and they don't have to be really realistic characters that hit a very specific tone as in a feature film. They're really fun, I want to make more of them definitely."
- Jim Jarmusch
(Related: Actors, Film, Fun, Want)
"I always start with characters rather than with a plot, which many critics would say is very obvious from the lack of plot in my films - although I think they do have plots - but the plot is not of primary importance to me, the characters are."
- Jim Jarmusch
(Related: Importance, Obvious)
"The theater, bringing impersonal masks to life, is only for those who are virile enough to create new life: either as a conflict of passions subtler than those we already know, or as a complete new character."
- Alfred Jarry
(Related: Life, Character, Conflict, Theater)
"Philosophy is tested and characterised by the way in which it appropriates its history."
- Karl Jaspers
(Related: History, Philosophy)
"One of the things I noticed more in this draft than in any recent drafts was the importance of the character issue. Players who had baggage, like Justice, fell much farther than his talent dictated. But a lot of coaches didn't want to take the chance."
- Ron Jaworski
(Related: Talent, Character, Chance, Coaches, Draft, Importance, Justice, Want)
"I always want to know what's wrong with you, why you ain't smiling. That's just my character; I just love people and want to see people having a good time."
- Wyclef Jean
(Related: Love, Time, People, Character, Want, Wrong)
"A strong body makes the mind strong. As to the species of exercises, I advise the gun. While this gives moderate exercise to the body, it gives boldness, enterprise and independence to the mind. Games played with the ball, and others of that nature, are too violent for the body and stamp no character on the mind. Let your gun therefore be your constant companion of your walks."
- Thomas Jefferson
(Related: Nature, Character, Body, Boldness, Exercise, Independence, Games, Mind)
"My characters are driven by a passionate desire for justice. They are rebellious and incorruptible."
- Tahar Ben Jelloun
(Related: Desire, Justice)
"In the prequel we're going to tell about the characters before Left Behind, and the book would end with the rapture instead of start with the rapture like the first one did."
- Jerry B. Jenkins
(Related: End, First)
"People want to find out what happens to the characters, and want to keep reading, and turning the pages."
- Jerry B. Jenkins
(Related: People, Reading, Want)
"SOON was the first novel where I used a rough outline. Usually I have characters and an idea and write as a process of discovery. Like working without a net."
- Jerry B. Jenkins
(Related: Idea, Discovery, First)
"The theater of the mind is impossible to compete with, and I like the idea that with a few suggestions, each reader forms in his or her own mind what a character or a place looks like."
- Jerry B. Jenkins
(Related: Idea, Character, Mind, Theater)
"There is a comfort zone of knowing where things are going and having characters in place, but the action gets more and more dramatic and is very challenging to describe."
- Jerry B. Jenkins
(Related: Action, Comfort, Zone)
"I love inventing worlds and characters and settings and scenarios."
- Jerry B. Jenkins
(Related: Love)
"Whatever you may think of Mrs. Clinton as a character, I think she believes quite strongly in public service."
- Peter Jennings
(Related: Character, May, Public, Service)
"It is hard to describe the thrill of creative joy which the artist feels when the conviction seizes her that at last she has caught the very soul of the character she wishes to portray, in the music and action which reveal it."
- Maria Jeritza
(Related: Music, Soul, Action, Character, Artist, Conviction, Joy, Wishes)
"With most British actors, it's amazing. I think they start with the character on the outside and work in."
- Norman Jewison
(Related: Work, Character, Actors)
"A lot of American actors I work with are in character all day long. You can't talk to them. It's Method and the whole thing."
- Norman Jewison
(Related: Work, Character, Actors, American, Day, Talk)
"I don't like to think that maybe I'm just getting old. I'm not too excited about watching a huge explosion. I'm more interested in people and characters."
- Norman Jewison
(Related: People, Old)
"It is tragic that the Fuehrer should have the whole nation behind him with the single exception of the Army generals. In my opinion it is only by action that they can now atone for their faults of lack of character and discipline."
- Alfred Jodl
(Related: Action, Character, Discipline, Army, Faults, Nation, Now, Opinion)
"It is from the blues that all that may be called American music derives its most distinctive character."
- James Weldon Johnson
(Related: Music, Character, American, May)
"Military leaders aren't made. They are born. To be a good leader, you have to have something in your character to cause people to follow you."
- Jimmy Johnson
(Related: Leader, People, Character, Cause, Leaders, Military)
"The fact that a man is a newspaper reporter is evidence of some flaw of character."
- Lyndon B. Johnson
(Related: Character, Fact, Man)
"Curiosity is one of the most permanent and certain characteristics of a vigorous intellect."
- Samuel Johnson
(Related: Curiosity, Intellect)
"And my father was a comic. He could play any musical instrument. He loved to perform. He was a wonderfully comedic character. He had the ability to dance and sing and charm and analyze poetry."
- Lynn Johnston
(Related: Poetry, Father, Dance, Character, Ability, Charm, Play)
"I'm happy being myself, which I've never been before. I always hid in other people, or tried to find myself through the characters, or live out their lives, but I didn't have those things in mine."
- Angelina Jolie
(Related: People, Being)