I find that it's really important for me to imagine characters and situations. That allows me a lot of freedom.
It's not about superheroes. This is the method of universal storytelling that all people have... To me, they're the same as the Greek myths or the Roman myths or religious figures of every religion. These are common characters that we use to express stories about being a better person or what you would do when faced with various things.
All of my characters tend to be montages of different people I've met: little bits and pieces of their personalities put together.
Working on a sitcom and improv improves your comedic chops. If you do it long enough, the one thing you learn to do is listen to the other characters.
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.
So I think the fans will be totally interested in the new developments and delighted that the old developments are still there and that they can still see some of the old characters maybe reappear.
The more settled I've become, the more problematic my characters have become. There was a period when I wrote sensitive and gentle songs and these came at a time when life was at its most destructive. I think you write about what you need, on some level.
I've played so many historical characters because most horrible dictators are short, fat, middle-aged men.
As different as me and Sigourney look is as different as these two characters are. I'm not filling her shoes. I'm doing a part that has the same monsters, but it's a completely different movie.
The cult of celebrity turned me off, and when the opportunities came along for me to play different characters, that's what I went for rather than the safe choices.
I think, in life, we want to surround ourselves with people who make us think and question ourselves, and those are the types of films I want to do and the types of characters that I hope I get to continue to play.
Tweeting is a great way to practice writing jokes, but there is so much more to comedy writing than just jokes. Jokes are a necessity, but you also have to learn how to write characters, to break a story, to keep coherence between episodes. I've learned more by being a TV writer than I ever could've on my own.
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.
If I were to continue on with 'The Host,' which is a possibility, there are characters and stories that could continue... If I went ahead with that, it would be two more... Next would be 'The Soul,' and then 'The Seeker.'
What makes literature interesting is that it does not survive its translation. The characters in a novel are made out of the sentences. That's what their substance is.
I consciously try to end my novels at a point where I won't have to wonder about my characters ever again.
My biggest thing is that I would love in some form or fashion to return to the 'Marvel' universe, whether in television or a feature. I love the people at 'Marvel' and grew up reading the characters, and it was a real dream come true getting to play with the toys.
It's true that it's a solitary occupation, but you would be surprised at how much companionship a group of imaginary characters can offer once you get to know them.
Characters who have some kind of free rein on their darker selves are always fun because they've taken the license off. You just get to fill out all the colors.
If there is a reason I'm able to make unsympathetic characters human, it's because it's my desire to find what drives the unsympathetic behavior. Almost always at the bottom of it is some deep insecurity. Putting your finger on what each individual's particular insecurity is goes a long way to fleshing that person out.
Normally, we see characters that have God complexes. How interesting, I thought, it would be to capitalize on that. And say, OK, well fine, you have a God complex, well this person has a Satan complex. And the doctor chooses to treat him scientifically.
In movies and TV, we tend to fall into tropes about how characters might get out of problems. But when you look at real life, you realize that there is a lot of drama of not being able to get out of the problems.
Younger characters are just much more emotional.
I think lot of Muslims have gotten fatigued by the way Muslim characters, even 'positive' ones, are portrayed in the media.
I'm not just saying this because I'm in the movie, but I really would recommend 'Secretariat.' It's fun, inspiring, and it's a great movie to take your little kids, brothers, sisters, or nieces and nephews to see that actually has real people in it and not animated characters.
I did private study for about a month, five days a week, six hours a day. I came to understand the character in ways that I never would've previous to that. I was so innocent in respect to ways of creating characters.
I don't ever want to get boxed in, playing the same characters, over and over again. That's why I prefer features over television.
I always try to make my characters people, and yet I always want to entertain.
When I owned the theater, I had the Glen Miller Orchestra. I had 20 girls singing and dancing. I had a cast of characters. It was a big group production, as well as ushers, ticket takers.
The lovely thing about writing is, well, two things. One, writing fiction allows us to bring an order to our lives that doesn't exist in real life. And two, it allows us to create human characters that we know better than we will ever know anyone in real life.
Creating characters is like throwing together ingredients for a recipe. I take characteristics I like and dislike in real people I know, or know of, and use them to embellish and define characters.
Watergate is an immensely complicated scandal with a cast of characters as varied as a Tolstoy novel.
Working within the limitations of the shared world generally made the writing easier, because I didn't have to invent any of the characters or background, which is usually the hardest part.
I am doing characters that have so many layers. And I am very lucky that I show a lot of variety.
I love novels where not much 'happens' but where the interest is in the ideas and analyses of characters.
The characters are trapped within the lifestyle. It's about what goes on before the movie starts.
