Quote

We are all the heroes and heroines of our own lives. Our love stories are amazingly romantic; our losses and betrayals and disappointments are gigantic in our own minds.

But there's the paradox of fiction - why do you cry when a fake character dies? It's the basis of art. You engage with people who don't exist and care about them as you would your friends and relatives.

I think all our characters are an amalgam of people we know in our world and ourselves.

In the film world, we can all be heroes. In the real world, where heroism can cost you your life or the life of the ones you love, people aren't so willing to make those sacrifices. When they do, they are set apart from the rest of us.

I'm a happy-go-lucky character. I'm not that miserable. But I can never let anyone into my world.

This is the beauty of fiction. We may not like these characters, but we inhabit them.

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.

Having spent so much time in a fictional world, I prefer to read about the real world.

I believe that interest in heroes is universal and eternal.