Famous Quotes & Sayings

David Foster Wallace

I tend to think of fiction as being mainly about characters and human beings and inner experience, whereas essays can be much more expository and didactic and more about subjects or ideas.

David Foster Wallace

My worst character flaw that I'm conscious of is that I tend to think my way into circles instead of resolving anything. It's paralyzing and boring for people around me.

David Coulthard

I can't stand it when Lewis Hamilton or anyone else, is made out to be a godlike character. If Lewis was driving for Red Bull I'm sure he would race extremely well, but he'd be battling for points.

David Cronenberg

Let's put it this way, when I was casting, I cast Viggo first and then found someone who could play his wife, rather than the other way around. So for me he's still the lead character.

I love magic and playing with magic systems. But to me, good fantasy like all fiction comes down to good character and plotting.

Guy Gavriel Kays Tigana is, in my opinion, one of the best, if not the best fantasy novel ever written. Its beautifully written, the characters are unforgettable, the worldbuilding is exquisite.

David Antin

It's hard being a hostage in somebody else's mouth - or a character in somebody else's novel.

David Ayer

In the writing phase, normally I try not to envisage any particular actors because I like to let the characters sort of reveal themselves in that process.

David Bailey

Actors are hard to photograph because they never want to reveal who they are. You don't know if you're getting a character from a Chekhov play or a Polanski film. It depends what mood they're in.

Curtis Armstrong

There's something about the way of playing a repellent character, that if you can play him with a certain amount of charm, you can get away with a lot.

Curtis Armstrong

I'm a character actor but unlike a lot of character actors, I don't look radically different from film to film and there was a bunch of them at once.

Curtis Hanson

Here [in Wonder Boys] I had this group of characters where you didn't know which were the important ones or what direction they were heading.

Curtis Hanson

I thought, "If I could bring these characters [Wonder Boys] to life and lead the audience to react the same way I did, this could be a really special picture." Then I read Michael's [Chabon] novel and got even more enthusiastic about it.

Curtis Hanson

When I first went to Pittsburgh, I had never been there before, and we hadn't even decided to shoot there yet. I just went to see the location of Michael Chabon's novel. Once there, I became aware that Pittsburgh is a "wonder boy," in the narrow sense of the term, just as the human characters are.

Curtis Hanson

From my point of view, when I was thinking about the prospect of [Michael Douglas] in this part, I wondered if he would go all the way with it. The reason I was concerned is that, oftentimes, actors - especially movie stars - when they're playing a character who might be perceived as unattractive or eccentric, will wink at the audience while they're doing it.

Curtis Hanson

Movie stars exaggerate certain things to let the audience know they're just playing a character, as if they're saying, "Look at me, I'm not really an old man, I'm just playing one." Or "I'm not really a homosexual, I'm just playing a gay character. Or an alcoholic. Or somebody who's mentally impaired." They often do it very successfully and win awards for it.

Curtis Hanson

I look for characters that interest me, and a story that keeps me involved and makes me want to know what happens next.

Curtis Jackson

What we'd consider a positive role model, I think it's impossible to actually be a role model. You'll have your flaws or defects of character, regardless. You just speak like a positive role model, and that's just something that you're being conscious of, and you make the decision, "I want to say positive things."

Curtis Jackson

I think it's impossible to actually be a role model. I think on some level, you'll have your flaws or defects of character, regardless.

Corey Stoll

I don't know how to play myself. I'm not interested enough in myself. That's just not how I was educated. That's not how I learned to become an actor. Acting is creating a character.

Corey Stoll

It's sort of cliche, but when you're playing drunk, your character is trying to appear sober.

Corey Feldman

I always keep my options open. I always say, "Make me an offer and send me the script, and if it's something that I can connect to or relate to..." The character has to intrigue me, and the project overall has to intrigue me. And if it all lines up properly, then we can get into the business side of it. But it's always about the creative first.

Corin Nemec

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.

Corin Nemec

Even though I was theatrically trained, learning to develop a character was an awesome experience.

Corin Nemec

I try to find what is closest to me in the character. There's many sides to personality, but it's a matter of, do you entertain those specific areas of your personality, or are you afraid to entertain them?

Confucius

I have yet to meet a man as fond of high moral conduct as he is of outward appearances.

Confucius

See a person's means ... Observe his motives. Examine that in which he rests. How can a person conceal his character?

Confucius

If an urn lacks the characteristics of an urn, how can we call it an urn?

Confucius

To be fond of learning is to draw close to wisdom. To practice with vigor is to draw close to benevolence. To know the sense of shame is to draw close to courage. He who knows these three things knows how to cultivate his own character. Knowing how to cultivate his own character, he knows how to govern other men. Knowing how to govern other men, he knows how to govern the world, its states, and its families.

Confucius

Character is the backbone of our human culture. Music is the flowering of character.

Confucius

A person of character takes as much trouble to discover what is right as the lesser men take to discover what will pay.

Confucius

The superior man is universally minded and no partisan. The inferior man is a partisan and not universal.

Confucius

What the superior man seeks is in himself; what the small man seeks is in others.