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I think, above all, the characters in my novels feel universal to the readers.

Readers will stay with an author, no matter what the variations in style and genre, as long as they get that sense of story, of character, of empathetic involvement.

Everyone loves characters that are relatable or who have unique quirks or tragic flaws.

I try to write characters that are as real, emotionally and psychologically, as I can make them; I feel the same way about setting. This often means that I'm drawing from my experiences and observations.

I think all characters are facets of the writer. In a way, they have to be if you're going to write them convincingly.

You have to have empathy, knowledge and compassion for your characters if you're a writer.

To me, characters are at the heart of great literature.

Generally, I think most of my writing tends to have some kind of magical element to it. That's the way I can access the emotional life of the character.

The stories that I like to tell and the movies I like are always grounded in the emotional arc of the characters.

The truth is, everything ultimately comes down to the relationship between the reader and the writer and the characters. Does or does not a character address moral being in a universal and important way? If it does, then it's literature.