'True Blood' differs from 'Six Feet Under' in that there are way more characters and plot-lines, but fundamentally it's still about the characters and their emotions.
I love the tradition of Dickens, where even the most minor walk-on characters are twitching and particular and alive.
A lot of entertainment, and especially in a half-hour format, can be all jokes, all the time. And some of those jokes can be really, really funny, but what I respond to, as a viewers, is identification or caring about the characters.
Characters do not change. Opinions alter, but characters are only developed.
All the great writers root their characters in true human behaviour.
I have been fortunate to experience a wide range of characters. What more can an actor ask for?
Vulnerability is huge. I love to see that in characters. It's something I feel like a lot of my comedic heroes have always done.
I'd like to play characters who are older - I don't want to be playing 14-year-olds too much longer.
Look at the Coen brothers. All their minor characters are as interesting as their protagonists. If the smaller characters are well-written, the whole world of the film becomes enriched. It's not the size of the thing, but the detail.
Yeah, what happened was Universal wanted one of the characters to be nice so they chose me so there was a scene where the girl was tied to the bed and I let her go.
If I wrote a play with four characters every single one of them would talk like me regardless of age or sex.
I like to play unpredictable characters, and I like to be unpredictable in what movie I'll do.
I hate it when characters know things but only reveal them when it's convenient to the story. I'd never do that. That's cheating.
I never really knew that I would be a lifer of strong female characters, but that seems to be the drops I'm being given, and I'm very happy for them. Hopefully, 'Divergent' will be the next thing.
The characters I've played have been mostly violent, and I'm so far from being violent or aggressive. I spend a lot of time watching 'Fireman Sam' with my three-year-old son Louis.
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!
I'm not a purist - I like films that are narrated and films that aren't, films that are beautiful and films that are clumsy but heartfelt. Mostly, I just like a good story and good characters.
For storytellers, financiers make ideal rogues. The easiest way to make characters unappealing is to make them rich - shorthand for spoiled, picky, superior, and cold-hearted.
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.
Human education is concerned with certain changes in the intellects, characters and behavior of men, its problems being roughly included under these four topics: Aims, materials, means and methods.
I think the most important technique is to ground everything, to make everything - to make fantasy world grounded and relatable, just great characters.
I don't think I'm like any of the characters I've played - they're all really far from who I am.
I want to have compassion for my characters - I feel like I am the characters when I'm writing them.
It may be true that the only reason the comic book industry now exists is for this purpose, to create characters for movies, board games and other types of merchandise.
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.
I'm interested in characters that are complex people.
I like characters with problems. I like to understand them... To play alcoholics, fetishists, strange girls, you have to dig deep within yourself. It's 'elsewhere' that interests me.
A lot of male actors are method actors and they become the characters which they both were.
Working on 'Drive', a lot of fun. This is Tim Minear whom I've worked with before on 'Firefly' of course. He called me up and said, 'I've got a part for you that you will love,' and I love Tim's writing. I love his stories. I love his characters, his dialogue. He has a knack for reveals and he has a knack for moments.
It's harder to write a story with just two people in a room than with 50 characters.
When I sit down to write, I know everything I need to know... I start writing, and within 30 seconds or 60 seconds, I'm watching a movie. I'm not making this stuff up; the characters are acting it out,and I'm just writing it down.
I'm not sure if a writer should talk about themes. Themes arrive out of the deeper structure and concerns, but to me, the main thing is getting it down right, writing about specific characters in specific predicaments, and finding a way to be true to the story itself, not only in the first burst of draft but in the revision, too.
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.
People say they love the characters I've chosen in my career. But I didn't choose anything. I just happened to be working and these were offered to me.
'Not Another Happy Ending' is a romantic comedy starring Karen Gillan and Stanley Weber. It is about these two characters and their relationships.
If the characters are compelling, readers will follow anywhere.
