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

To me, my characters are more real than most people I meet.

I don't think of my characters as people I create, I think of them more as people I have met and whom I'm exploring on the page. I don't actually think of myself as having 'created' any of these people.

I try to distinguish my characters from each other.

Very few of my characters are based on people I've known. It is too constricting.

I try to talk about things I know about. But my characters are more of a combination of people or how I imagine people would feel.

I always want the audience to identify with my character in some way. I mean, sometimes you'll get characters that aren't very identifiable. Sometimes you can't relate to your character at all. I think it's important to keep the audience interested. But the best advice that I've gotten is to live in the moment.

I always talk about my characters like they're real people.

I try not to identify too strongly with any of my characters. I like to stand back and see them objectively. I think this is why I often use boys instead of girls, just in case I get too close and lose the overall picture.