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I want to have compassion for my characters - I feel like I am the characters when I'm writing them.

I have a lot of compassion for human beings in life experiences, so I allow myself to feel what these characters are feeling and don't have a problem accepting that.

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

Although I'm not particularly troubled myself, I do have a lot of empathy for troubled characters.

To act, no matter how the character is, you have to love and have compassion for the character you're playing.

I don't care about sympathy. I care about playing a character who's understandable and clear.

To read a character I'm not sympathizing with is generally quite a good, attractive proposition because I've got somewhere to go, I've got work to do, to try to understand why they behave like they behave, to relate entirely and understand them and to be completely emotionally connected. That is much more fun 99 percent of the time.

I am really drawn to damaged characters, and I have a lot of sympathy for them. Making those complicated characters empathetic is something to strive for. It's too easy to create a good guy or a good girl.

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

I guess you could say that no matter what the characters are enduring, I try to make them retain their humanity. Their self-absorbed, grouchy, selfish, aggravating humanity.