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The characters are always the focal point of a book for me, whether I'm writing or reading. I may enjoy a book that has an intriguing mystery or a good plot, but to become one of my real favorites, it has to have great characters.

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

All great characters, great icons, in literature are a bit of a riddle, and that's the reason we go back to them over and over.

Literature throws us many great heroes. Real life invariably outdoes them.

Well, the thing about great fictional characters from literature, and the reason that they're constantly turned into characters in movies, is that they completely speak to what makes people human.

Any great character is the combination of a brilliant actor and the right writing.

Many novelists take well-defined, precise characters, whose stories are sometimes of mediocre interest, and place them in an important historical context, which remains secondary in spite of everything.

I don't think of the characters as being good or bad because that doesn't help me as a writer.

I love working fictional characters into a piece of history. It plays to my strengths, which are characterization and dialogue, and assists me in my admitted weakness, plot.

I know when I go and see a writer, the first thing I think to myself is, 'Are they the character in the book?' You just can't help it; it's the way people are.