These characterization quotes will inspire you. Characterization or characterisation is the representation of persons (or other beings or creatures) in narrative and dramatic works.
Below you will find a collection of motivating, happy, and encouraging characterization quotes, characterization sayings, and characterization proverbs.
Best Characterization Quotes
- “Characterization is an accident that flows out of action and dialogue.” ~ Jack Woodford
- “Characterization requires a constant back-and-forth between the exterior events of the story and the inner life of the character.” ~ David Corbett
- “Characterization is not divorced from plot, not a coat of paint you slap on after the structure of events is already built. Rather characterization is inseparable from plot.” ~ Nancy Kress
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“You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view.” ~ Harper Lee
- “There are technical tricks that may help you create more effective characters. My approach to characterization is not at all technical. I can’t really analyze how I do it, but I am sure of one thing. To write convincing characters, you must possess the ability to think yourself into someone else’s skin.” ~ Juliet Marillier
- “I’m not interested in plots. I’m interested only in the characterization of people and what they do.” ~ Erskine Caldwell
- “My theory of characterization is basically this: Put some dirt on a hero, and put some sunshine on the villain, one brush stroke of beauty on the villain.” ~ Justin Cronin
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“Characterization is integral to the theatrical experience.” ~ Robert Ludlum
- “An attempt to write nothing but characterization will soon bog down; I for one don’t want to have somebody tell me about someone else.” ~ Daniel Keys Moran
- “The safest general characterization of the European philosophical tradition is that it consists of a series of footnotes to Plato.” ~ Alfred North Whitehead
- “This time we aren’t fighting the Yankees, we’re fighting our friends. But remember this, no matter how bitter things get, they’re still our friends and this is still our home.” ~ Harper Lee
- “By definition it uses and plays and delights in time. It delights in the interlacing of chronologies and the consequences of that interlacing. And those have personal and psychological expressions in a character. Aside from other issues of writing, psychological characterization is what narrative can do best.” ~ Chang-Rae Lee , Characterization quotes character
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“It was times like these when I thought my father, who hated guns and had never been to any wars, was the bravest man who ever lived.” ~ Harper Lee
- “Philosophy is the product of wonder. The effort after the general characterization of the world around us is the romance of human thought.” ~ Alfred North Whitehead
- “I would say plotting is the most difficult thing for me. Characterization is only hard because sometimes I feel I get so interested in it that I want to talk too much about the characters and that slows the story down. So I say, “Hey, people want to find out what’s going to happen next, they don’t want to listen to you spout off about this or that person.” But I think even the bad guy deserves to tell his side of the story.” ~ Stephen King
- “It is not unusual to hear a religious leader, a philosopher, or a poet refer to man as having a divine spark within him. Such characterizations infer that man possesses great abilities and potentials. We are frequently admonished to develop our capabilities, reach out, and set high goals for ourselves.” ~ Ezra Taft Benson
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“The only time that I’ve adopted characterization again since that point, for my own albums, has been an album called “Outside” that I did with Brian Eno.” ~ David Bowie
- “One thing about beginning writers is that they don’t really always know their own strengths and weaknesses – you might think you’re bad at characterization, but that might really be because of some issue you’re having with another element, which is making it hard for you to express character in a convincing way.” ~ Jeff VanderMeer
- “With Batman&Robin, the fourth entry in the recent Batman movie series, the profitable franchise appears poised to take a nosedive. This film, which places yet another actor in the batsuit, has all the necessary hallmarks of a sorry sequel – pointless, plodding plotting; asinine action; clueless, comatose characterization; and dumb dialogue. Batman&Robin moves at a dizzying pace, yet goes absolutely nowhere.” ~ James Berardinelli
- “The only thing that surprises me is the characterization of teachers as lazy and greedy. Only someone with very little understanding of what teaching requires would say such a thing.” ~ Taylor Mali
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“Acting is characterization, the process of two entities merging-the actor and the role.” ~ George C. Scott
- “It is no accident that Hitler, Lenin, Pol Pot and other butchers of note took special pains early in their despotic careers to suppress religion and undermine the traditional family. Theophobes would find such a characterization truly horrifying, but it’s true. This explains why theophobia – while popular in faculty lounges, journalism seminars and Hollywood bacchanals – has not and probably never will attract a public following of any appreciable influence or size.” ~ Tony Snow
- “The 250-page outline for American Tabloid. The books are so dense. They’re so complex, you cannot write like I write off the top of your head. It’s the combination of that meticulousness and the power of the prose and, I think, the depth of the characterizations and the risks that I’ve taken with language that give the books their clout. And that’s where I get pissed off at a lot of my younger readers.” ~ James Ellroy
- “I’m very disturbed at the picture that was painted by Senator Ted Kennedy that Samuel Alito is not a man of his word, that he is dishonest. The implication that he is not reliable I don’t think is a fair characterization of what I’ve read.” ~ Tom Coburn
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“I’m trying to make the case that the church can indeed, from within its own resources, move out of a false, and often a hateful, characterization of and set of attitudes toward gay and lesbian people.” ~ James Alison
- “Instead of saying, ah, I don’t have the money, just embrace it and do what we can do. And the scenes that we film and the characterizations in the scenes can come out interesting. And I really feel good about that, going into it.” ~ George Tillman, Jr.
- “I write about life as it exists within houses and on the streets. And there’s nothing, hopefully, in any of my characterizations or in any of my plottings or in any of my valuations that doesn’t ring true to life. I’m a novelist. I’m not a theoretician.” ~ Richard Grossman
- “I’ve never bought into any sort of hard and fast, this-box/that-box characterization. People are individuals. Yes, they may be expected to be a particular way. But that doesn’t mean they’re going to be that way.” ~ Margaret Atwood
- “Usually when I put my focus on the pacing, the plot, the specific characterizations, – it’s ironic – but then I actually increase my chances of writing something that moves people because I haven’t become too self-conscious of the goal.” ~ Christopher Rice
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“I think my wife would take objection to any characterization of me as perfect.” ~ Peter Blair Henry
- “You can use the fun of the genre, but I also really wanted to come at it from the point of view of some really complex characterization. There was a lot that I wanted it to do, and I wanted it to be fun. It’s fun, but it’s not simple fun.” ~ Adrian Hodges
- “A lot of people characterize women as more cautious. I don’t think that’s an inappropriate characterization, but that’s not a natural thing we’re born with, it’s something that comes about.” ~ Abigail Tarttelin
- “Our characterization of collective folly is that sound judgment is not feasible when there is forced or false agreement in groups. We also show how group polarization sets the stage for risky and even dangerous decisions to be made. How we navigate between false agreement and polarization is the kind of mastery that collective wisdom represents.” ~ Alan Briskin
- “I get letters from adults saying that they love the books because they are more in-depth with characterization than the comics. The luxury of writing a whole novel is you can really explore who the characters are.” ~ Lisa Yee
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“Even in cerebral roles that are seemingly intelligent and nothing else, I think it’s so important to wrap your characterization in a physical form as well.” ~ Benedict Cumberbatch
- “Psychoanalytic categories such as “neurosis”, “psychosis”, “mania”, and “fixation” have become part of our everyday psychological vocabulary and we now routinely interpret states of anxiety, excitement, or depression in terms of physiological factors involving levels of serotonin, adrenalin, or blood sugar. To say that the characterization of thinking has a normative function that is irreducible to neurophysiological processing is not to say that our extant classification of the forms of thinking is incorrigible.” ~ Ray Brassier
- “When I’m writing, especially when I’m writing in first person, I don’t think about the characterization, or how they are going to express themselves, I just express my own approach to these things. I think most writers can never divorce themselves from their private lives and personas; they are the ones that are writing. And the more they remove themselves from their own persona, the more, perhaps, mechanical the work becomes.” ~ Richard Matheson
- “Shamefulness is always a huge part of my characterizations. I like protagonists that reveal, either through “honesty” in their various thought processes or via their actions, perhaps telling us things they’re not so keen on disclosing through their interactions with the outside world. Probably both during the duration of a novel.” ~ Joshua Mohr
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“Steve [King] has been incredibly supportive. He’s also really good about getting back to me when I have questions about plot or characterization.” ~ Robin Furth
- “I think I’ve learned a lot about how to make movies, and particularly about how to edit movies by thinking about how similar problems are resolved in other forms. The issues in all forms are the same in an abstract sense, aren’t they? Characterization, abstraction, metaphor, passage of time… Whether it’s a movie, a novel, a play, or a poem, those issues exist. And each person resolves them differently.” ~ Frederick Wiseman
- “I think I made a mistake with [Jane] Austen by reading all six in a row. There are similarities to the plots so by the time I got to the last one I could anticipate what was happening too easily. But her characterizations are amazing.” ~ Stephen Dobyns
- “Of course, there are hundreds of novels and authors that have influenced me. But to choose three, they are: Stephen King/The Stand (and really most of his books); Anne Rice/The Witching Hour; and Pat Conroy/The Prince of Tides. These authors write my favorite kind of book – epic feel, gorgeous prose, unique characters, and a pace that keeps you turning the pages. From them, I learned a lot about characterization, pacing, prose, voice, and originality.” ~ Megan Chance
- “I reject totally the characterization of a transwoman as a mutilated man. First, that formulation presumes that men born into that sex assignment are not mutilated. Second, it once again sets up the feminist as the prosecutor of trans people. If there is any mutilation going on in this scene, it is being done by the feminist police force who rejects the lived embodiment of transwomen. That very accusation is a form of “mutilation” as is all transphobic discourse such as these.” ~ Judith Butler
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“I can see a movie and believe the story and characterization and stay proud of it. It doesn’t change. Even if it’s unappreciated, that doesn’t mean it can’t be appreciated in the future.” ~ Oliver Stone
- “From 1940 to about 1960, I had been writing just regular comics, the way my publishers wanted me too. He didn’t want me to use words of more than two syllables if I could help it. He didn’t want me to waste time on worrying about good dialogue or characterization. Just give me a lot of action, lot of fight scenes.” ~ Stan Lee
- “I don’t really enjoy working in TV, to be completely honest, even though it’s incredibly lucrative, I’m just terrified of not being satiated in a myriad of different ways. It’s amazing that I get to create every day, as an actor, or a director, or a writer, and I get to do it in a variety of different genres and worlds and characterizations. I think that’s the great privilege of what we do, we get to make believe. I get to go to so many different places, try on different occupations, take on different points of view. That’s what’s always been sort of alluring.” ~ Lake Bell
- “I will never forget the pleasure and instruction I derived from working with a true master of his art, such as Edward G. Robinson was – and is. Surely his record for versatility, studied characterization – ranging from modern colloquial to the classics – and artistic integrity is unsurpassed.” ~ Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.
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“Characterization in a play is like a blank check which the dramatist accords to the actor for him to fill in.” ~ Thornton Wilder
- “And yet because of my attempt at sincerity I have been condemned, hooted at, reviled; filthy rumors have been circulated about me, not about my characterizations but about me personally, my private self.” ~ Erich von Stroheim
- “Carver’s best book yet! FROM A CHANGELING STAR combines deft characterization and fascinating extrapolation into a complex, compulsively readable thriller. I wish all science fiction novels could be this good.” ~ Craig Shaw Gardner
- “I have never gone into a picture without first studying my characterization from all angles. I make a study of the fellow’s life and try to learn everything about him, including the conditions under which he came into this world, his parentage, his environment, his social status, and the things in which he is interested. Then I attempt to get his mental attitude as much as possible.” ~ William Powell
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“The second draft is on yellow paper, that’s when I work on characterizations. The third is pink, I work on story motivations. Then blue, that’s where I cut, cut, cut.” ~ Jacqueline Susann
- “Karl Rove described Obama as “the guy at the country club with the beautiful date, holding a martini, and making snide comments about everyone who passes by.” Unlike George Bush, who’s the guy at the country club who makes snide comments, and then passes out. Now this characterization, of course, was something Mr. Rove just completely pulled out of his bulbous, gelatinous a$$, but remember this is America, a land where people believe anything they hear.” ~ Bill Maher
- “When becoming a character, you have to steal. Steal whatever you see. You can even steal from other actors’ characterizations; but if you do, only steal from the best.” ~ Michael Caine
- “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 , Characterization quotes literature
- “Dwarves are not heroes, but a calculating folk with a great idea of the value of money; some are tricky and treacherous and pretty bad lots; some are not but are decent enough people like Thorin and Company if you don’t expect too much.” ~ J. R. R. Tolkien
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“Characterization requires self-knowledge, insight into human nature . . . it is more than impersonation.” ~ Leon Surmelian
- “He defined me first, as parents do. Those early characterizations can become the shimmering self-image we embrace or the limited, stifling perception we rail against for a lifetime.” ~ Kelly Corrigan
- “One of the reasons for its success is that science has a built-in, error-correcting machinery at its very heart. Some may consider this an overbroad characterization, but to me every time we exercise self-criticism, every time we test our ideas against the outside world, we are doing science. When we are self-indulgent and uncritical, when we confuse hopes and facts, we slide into pseudoscience and superstition.” ~ Carl Sagan
- “Now, learning how to make a movie is something you can figure out in about an afternoon. The physics of it, the marks, the lights, etc. What’s hard to do is to suspend your own feelings of self consciousness. The natural actors can do that; they can become part of a characterization and learn how to maintain it.” ~ Tom Hanks
- “The craft of writing is all the stuff that you can learn through school; go to workshops and read books. Learn characterization, plot and dialogue and pacing and word choice and point of view. Then there’s also the art of it which is sort of the unknown, the inspiration, the stuff that is noncerebral.” ~ Garth Stein
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“But eventually I moved the portraiture into the smaller clay things which gave them more of a caricature look to them, rather than a characterization.” ~ Joe Fafard
- “I think I’m very strong at dialogue, I think I’m very strong in characterization. I think sometimes I use dialogue and character work to cover weaknesses in my plotting.” ~ Kelly Sue DeConnick
- “Something that has always attracted me to even taking on the occupation of actor is the idea that I could be lucky enough to portray different characterizations from different places in the world, whether it’s speaking another language or taking on a dialect and building a history from where they were born. I was very attracted to that concept, in becoming an actor.” ~ Lake Bell
- “In art and life we’re always reading bodies and behaviors (and skies and skylines or whatever), constructing brief and shifting coherences, and I guess I want to capture that process of characterization and re-characterization instead of offering up a few stable, easily-summarized individuals.” ~ Ben Lerner
