Quote

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.

I suppose all fictional characters, especially in adventure or heroic fiction, at the end of the day are our dreams about ourselves. And sometimes they can be really revealing.

I have discovered I cannot dream up characters as incredible as the ones I meet in the wilderness.

As for dream roles, they usually just speak to you. I just crave complex characters.

At the core, I try to write characters who are real people with real insecurities, fears, hopes, and dreams, which is why hopefully readers can identify with them.

I'm always determined that as a novelist I'm going to go out there and research my characters very thoroughly before I start writing.

I start with characters, and then I start writing, and then, if I'm lucky, things start to happen.

I'm always writing about character first. Plot, such as it is, comes from the characters.

Dreams are the touchstones of our character.

I like my characters to be ones I think about long after I've finished reading the script.