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

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

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

People that seem so glorious are all show; underneath they are like everyone else.

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.

The important thing is for the characters to feel real, and to be given the humanity they are due. That granting of humanity is what separates a full portrait from a stereotype.

Among adults, we can admit that of course, characters are creations. They aren't real people.

Human character is just endlessly fascinating, and there is no character who is one thing any more than any one person is just one thing. As you work on a character, he/she is revealed more and more. That's what I continue to love about the work.

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