I did private study for about a month, five days a week, six hours a day. I came to understand the character in ways that I never would've previous to that. I was so innocent in respect to ways of creating characters.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
Playing the misunderstood character has been really interesting to me. But I think after too long, that also becomes a little bit of a cliche. Or that's all you're expected to do. I didn't want that to be the totality of what my career was.
Characters have changed my mind about some very fundamental moral issues, and that's the real satisfaction in the way I write - the ultimate learning experience.
My school of thought with going into a character is that you have to understand where they come from, and you have to empathize with them.
Well, I think it can be quite helpful to be working on a character who actually existed, historically. Of course, you might have material to study and help you create the character.
I made the character as much of myself as I could.
Time made me change. I gradually woke up to the realization that this is who I am, an author, a public figure, and I couldn't just hide in my study, tapping away at the keyboard and pretend that I didn't have a role to play beyond stringing words together.
I think I've learnt that there is no character so strange that you haven't shared their experience in some small way.
I mean I tried to transform myself through characters throughout my career.
One of the things I love about writing is the way you can use what you know and what you've experienced, without actually writing about yourself. I've given many of my experiences and perceptions to many of the characters in the book, but none of them is me.
My first two novels were set in the past, and that freed me up in a lot of ways; it allowed me to find my way into my story and my characters through research.