Female Character Quotes

#1. I read the script for 'Guncrazy' in 1985 and loved it because it was one of the few scripts I'd come across that revolved around a strong female character.

Tamra Davis

#2. What makes a strong female character is a character who has weaknesses, who has flaws, who is maybe not immediately likable, but eventually relatable.

Tavi Gevinson

#3. I don't fully understand my wife's emotions - and I'm supposed to write an excellent female character and unravel the secret of women?

Evan Goldberg

#4. I would like Martin Scorsese to be interested in a female character once in a while, but I don't know if I'll live that long.

Meryl Streep

#5. On Writing About Nora Hawks
I write about a female character to try, in vain, to understand two things: the purpose of life, and women.

Dennis R. Miller

#6. It was a great joy for me to develop a strong female character in the spirit of an Icelandic woman. Icelandic women tend to be very strong and very independent, and I think that came in very handy.

Anita Briem

#7. When men write women, they tend to write women the way they want women to be, or the way they resent women for being. They don't really - they seldom nail it. It takes a woman to write a really good female character. I like that.

Simon Pegg

#8. I think that Hollywood misconstrues actresses saying, 'Oh I wanna play a strong female character,' like we all want to play, like, superheroes or something.

Bel Powley

#9. In 1996, Shakespeare's 'Twelfth Night' was removed from classrooms after a school board passed a 'prohibition of alternative lifestyle instruction' act. Apparently, a young female character disguised as a boy was a danger to the youth of Merrimack, New Hampshire.

Richard LaGravenese

#10. I think 'Sightseers' was a bit of an epiphany, a massive learning curve, and it gave me loads of confidence to go out there, and also to create a female character which is completely unexpected and defies convention.

Alice Lowe

#11. There's nothing worse than having a very strong female character and then suddenly having it go away.

Khandi Alexander

#12. It's difficult to make a movie about a complicated, non-traditional female character. We see a lot more movies with male characters who are at that point in their lives, but not that many about females.

Megan Griffiths

#13. When you encounter sophistication in the creation of a female character, you thank the writers and you claim it.

Vera Farmiga

#14. It seems like it has kind of taken off where people are saying 'oh it's a female character' and it just kind of grew. But my intent in saying that was humour. You know, you have to show Link when you create a trailer for a Zelda announcement.

Eiji Aonuma

#15. If screenwriters have to kill off a female character, they love to give her cancer. We've seen so many great actresses go down to the Big C: Ali MacGraw, Meryl Streep, Emma Thompson, Debra Winger, Susan Sarandon.

Geraldine Brooks

#16. As a feminist, just to speak to what women go through, I think women are put in a box way too often. What I love about 'You're the Worst' is that no female character is portrayed as a black-and-white cartoon character. We're all complicated, messy human beings.

Kether Donohue

#17. I think every time you take a female character, a black character, a Hispanic character, a gay character, and make that the point of the character, you are minimalizing the character,

Len Wein

#18. I did not find that writing a diary with a lead male character differed in any essential way from writing one with a female character. They all had the same challenges in terms of attempting to establish an identity, coping with loneliness, friendships, relationships.

Kathryn Lasky

#19. I have a real passion for playing a role that's a strong female character, that's just not typical, with a lot of heart, not an easy sell of a movie, not real commercial. It doesn't have to be a big movie, but I'm just looking for something that I really, truly, 100 percent believe in and am behind.

Missy Peregrym

#20. If it were not somewhat fanciful to suppose that every human excellence is presented, as it were, in one kind of being, we might believe that the whole treasure of morality and order is enshrined in the female character.

Wilhelm Von Humboldt

#21. It's interesting to play a female character who's not ever using feminine wiles to get things done.

Allison Tolman

#22. I want to do a little bit of everything. I want to play a good, strong female character.

Shannon Elizabeth

#23. I get really excited every time there's a female character who is really strong because a lot of females in film are really soft.

Anna Kendrick

#24. I don't believe that a female character needs to surrender her femininity in order to be an action hero.

Colin Trevorrow

#25. I'd like to do something where there's a strong female character and some action. I've done a few stunts in the past.

Vicky McClure

#26. If you can remove a female character from your plot and replace her with a sexy lamp and your story still works, you're a hack.

Kelly Sue DeConnick

#27. The "difficult" female character can-and will-do the shocking, the unexpected and, as a consequence, will give your story an immediate jolt of energy. She is the character who doesn't fit the mold.

Jane Heller

#28. When you've played Buffy - who's such a strong female role model - it's really hard for another female character to compare to her.

Sarah Michelle Gellar

#29. I wouldn't know how to write a weak female character. I read so much epic fantasy growing up, where you have these sword-wielding, in-your-face warrior maidens.

Richelle Mead

#30. I think every woman character, every female character, has her own arc.

Katheryn Winnick

#31. What's the trick to writing a great female character? Make her human.

Nicole Holofcener

#32. There's no need for a female character that does things like a male character; that's not what makes interesting female characters in my view.

Colin Trevorrow

#33. A female character can: Like babies, Be devoted to her lover, Cry, Be gentle, Be scared, Be uncertain, Take advice, and still be a YA heroine

Celine Kiernan

#34. In my mind, every single female character I've written is plus-size.

Rainbow Rowell

#35. Whether consciously or unconsciously, I felt myself drawn to writing a female character who was pretty flawed and not very virtuous or wonderful or attractive in these ways that throughout literary history we've come to expect female characters to be.

Leni Zumas

#36. I guess there's a vulnerability in seeing a female character trying to get out of something really drastic.

Elisha Cuthbert

#37. I think one of the things that is easy to have happened in a superhero story is that the female character, whether she be a heroine or not, can often be the wart on the man.

Evangeline Lilly

#38. I do love that witches haven't really been explored that much. Usually, witches are the little side character ... a bad female character that comes in and leaves.

Madchen Amick

#39. I won't take parts where the female character has no substance.

Margot Robbie

#40. I know it to be the established custom of your sex to reject a man on the first application, and perhaps you have even now said as much to encourage my suit as would be consistent with the true delicacy of the female character.

Jane Austen

#41. I can't live in a world where there are only, like, four kinds of women. Or where every woman is obsessed with cake. The very least I ask is that we have one female character in the world who likes savory things! I don't have any role models who like cheese!

Caitlin Moran

#42. I think the book struck me in a few ways that I thought very interesting to pick it as my first martial arts film. It has a very strong female character and it was very abundant in classic Chinese textures.

Ang Lee

#43. Often, I'll read a script and the female character's an extension or serves some sort of purpose in terms of the male character's narrative and it just isn't fully formed. But they will be very beautiful. Whether a secretary or a doctor or a vet, they will be very beautiful.

Andrea Riseborough

#44. I think there is a wonderful trend of strong female characters on television right now.

Amanda Schull

#45. The Blood She Betrayed is unique, and Shahkara, the character, is one of the most engaging strong female role models I've seen in a long time. This girl can handle herself! The plot is full of ingenious twists, turns and surprises, and I look forward to reading the next book in the series.

L.J.Smith

#46. There's just a deeper level of sophistication in the writing of female characters on TV.

Vera Farmiga

#47. I've certainly seen stats that if you have a woman director or a woman screenwriter, the number of female characters goes way up.

Emma Donoghue

#48. While my work is usually about the Igbo woman experience, there are many aspects of my female characters that women everywhere can and do relate to.

Chika Anadu

#49. I think the female first-person is still dismissed, demonized, especially if the book does not end on an empowering note, especially if the main character is perceived as unlikeable, or too privileged.

Kate Zambreno

#50. Any new French female acquaintance would most likely have held herself aloof, eyeing you suspiciously until she had assessed your character and whether or not you posed a threat.

Catherine Sanderson

#51. I would tell any actress that the trick is to play all the female characters on your show, and then all the men are yours.

Sarah Michelle Gellar

#52. The fact that the adult American Negro female emerges a formidable character is often met with amazement, distaste and even belligerance. It is seldom accepted as an inevitable outcome of the struggle won by survivors, and deserves respect if not enthusiastic acceptance.

Maya Angelou

#53. I'm attracted to films that have strong female characters because there are strong female characters in my life.

Ryan Gosling

#54. I wanted to have very strong female characters. I just thought it was always the way the world should be.

Elizabeth Hand

#55. When I get an idea for a book, something appeals to me, it's usually a character. I'll see a picture of a female marshal in front of the courthouse in Miami and she's got a shotgun on her hip and it goes up on an angle. And she's good-looking. And I say, 'I've got to use her.'

Elmore Leonard

#56. I don't think male characters are as one-dimensional as female characters.

Geena Davis

#57. I find that in the science fiction world, you have almost more women fans than male fans and I think it's because there's been such a shortage of strong female characters.

Katee Sackhoff

#58. Buddy, you have no idea what I am capable of. Now, put the rifle down on the ground. Step back and walk away. Then leave this place and do not ever come back. If you do that, I will let you live.

James J. Caterino

#59. There are a set of malicious, prating, prudent gossips, both male and female, who murder characters to kill time; and will rob a young fellow of his good name before he has years to know the value of it.

Richard Brinsley Sheridan

#60. When I first got the job, I was told nothing about my character. She's an anthropologist and she's tough, she's a female Indiana Jones. That's what I went into [Lost] knowing.

Rebecca Mader

#61. I do think that character types trend. As a female comedian, the parts that come my way are often terrible women.

Jenny Slate

#62. I would like to find a more precise way to not only tell the stories of female characters, but also do so in a female "way." My biggest advice would be to trust yourself.

Danae Elon

#63. There's surprisingly little difference between writing from a male angle and from a female angle, but I feel more restricted in my language when I'm writing as a male character because males tend to sound less emotionally expressive than females.

Anne Tyler

#64. I don't find it fun watching someone trying to be sexy. It's whack. I'm trying to just show my true personality, and I think that means more than anything else. I think when personality is at the forefront, its not about male or female, its just about, who is this weird character?

Nicki Minaj

#65. It's a convention, but in horror movies the female characters usually tend to believe easier in a supernatural event.

Fede Alvarez

#66. I prefer people to consider me by who I am and what I do and not by how I look!

Gayathri Jayakumar

#67. Because I had some roles that resonated with women, I immediately noticed that there were far more male characters than female characters in what we're showing little kids in the 21st century, which was stunning to me. But I couldn't find anybody else who noticed.

Geena Davis

#68. In terms of the black female audience, usually if you're true to that character but more so in your body of work if you've proven that you love your sisters and you proven you will come back home like in 42.4% they'll give you a pass when you jump ship. I hear it all the time.

Blair Underwood

#69. Sometime female characters, especially in the genre of something that people consider rom-com, make mistakes in a cute way or they're a mess in a way that's palatable. I like that.

Greta Gerwig

#70. Johnny Depp is really my favorite male actor. Ellen Page would be my favorite female actor. Both of them, just because of the diversity that Johnny plays in his roles and just the different characters that he morphs into, it's fantastic.

Callan McAuliffe

#71. I always want a challenge. My whole career has been based on trying to avoid female characters that don't get to do anything. And it's really hard to avoid those.

Geena Davis

#72. When you can find a strong character and a director that does want to protect the integrity of all characters, female and male, then you have a good deal.

Amber Heard

#73. Sometimes female characters start out as the wife or girlfriend, but then I realize, 'No, she's the book,' and she becomes a main character. I surrender the book to her.

Elmore Leonard

#74. Strong female characters - even if they don't necessarily make the same decisions that we might - make such great narrative material, especially when there's an equally strong male character in the mix.

Meg Cabot

#75. I think any character has to be well-rounded, whether they are male or female - they have to be complex and make choices that maybe we don't agree with, you know? I guess that's what makes them human.

Cary Fukunaga

#76. One of the most interesting female characters I've written about was Meg Riddoch, the lead character in 'The Thompson Gunner'.

Nick Earls

#77. I love female-driven drama, and those kinds of characters. I really love complex women.

Anna Silk

#78. Most people view female directors as female only, that we only deal with women's issues and women characters. Although most of my films have dealt with women, I do have work that deals with other matters, and I'm always open to different stories regardless of gender.

Shahad Ameen

#79. I have always believed that national character ... depends more on the female part of society than is generally imagined. Precepts from the lips of a beloved mother ... sink deep in the heart, and make an impression which is seldom entirely effaced.

John Marshall

#80. People focus on the darker female characters in my books, but for every one of those, I can also show you an equally screwed up man that no one ever comments about, or a nicer woman that no one comments about.

Gillian Flynn

#81. Women don't question themselves when they enter into a story that has male characters, but men do question the validity of a female narrative.

Romola Garai

#82. For any character, male or female, I think it's important to have ... it's cliche to say a flawed character, but to really think about the good and the bad and make sure that both are present, and it doesn't just become a glossed over icon of perfection.

Jane Jensen

#83. Why read fiction when real life can be just as interesting?

LHandLG

#84. I never wanted to model myself on a female singer, which tells you a lot about my character. I didn't have a female role model. There just wasn't anybody around. I played with the boys and beat them at their own game.

Suzi Quatro

#85. To all the women I say, don't ask to be saved by anyone, "my brave baghinis" (tigresses). Remember, if you deem yourselves as sheeps, men will treat you as such, but if you deem yourselves as tigresses, then you are the ones who will shape humanity.

Abhijit Naskar

#86. I've always loved pinup art, and I've always enjoyed drawing women. I think it was a conscious decision that has resulted in me getting almost exclusive work on comics where the main character is female.

Adam Hughes

#87. Today is the anniversary of my husband's death," Maria announced. It was a dramatic statement, but the occasion seemed to demand it. "And I am going to leave.

Sara Sheridan

#88. Madame Bovary is timeless. It is not just about the female condition in France in the 1840s. It's not a simple cautionary tale. Emma is more than a character; she gives us an insight into human nature. With Emma, we are diving into the complexities of Flaubert's psyche.

Sophie Barthes

#89. I like to make all my characters interesting. Be they male, female or creatures unknown.

Rhianna Pratchett

#90. Letti wasn't born to pass through the world. She had been born to sit atop of it.

S.R. Crawford

#91. Magazines wanted Jessica Rabbit - the animated character - not real women. Heck, even supermodels weren't good enough anymore. Real women didn't sell magazines. Unrealistic and unhealthy images of female beauty sold magazines.

Penny Reid

#92. Whatever you are physically ... male or female, strong or weak, ill or healthy
all those things matter less than what your heart contains. If you have the soul of a warrior, you are a warrior. All those other things, they are the glass that contains the lamp, but you are the light inside.

Cassandra Clare

#93. I needed an adult female wearing a tight sleeveless cheongsam mini-dress to help me learn Chinese. All my senses would have to focus; otherwise I would end up knowing nothing. Tracing each Chinese character upon the small of her back with my index finger was only proper way to begin a lesson.

Matt Muller

#94. I think Wonder Woman is a very difficult character to crack. More difficult than Superman, who is also more difficult than Batman. Also, a lot of people in Hollywood believe that it's hard to do a big action movie with a female lead. I happen to disagree with that.

David S.Goyer

#95. The ratio of male to female characters in movies has been exactly the same since 1946. So if you've ever had people say, you know, "It's better now, it's all changed, it's all different," it's not, it hasn't. Not yet.

Geena Davis

#96. That's different," Levi smiled at her warmly. "Ypu don't rock that Little Red Riding Hood vibe. You're scary."
Reagan grinned like the Big Bad Wolf.

Rainbow Rowell

#97. A general philosophy of the female characters in my films is they all want something to believe in, and not having anything.

Woody Allen

#98. The female love interest is boring to me. A female that's interesting, smart, funny - that's what I'm drawn to. I wouldn't say that every character has to be smart, but she has to have one trait I can relate to.

Aubrey Plaza

#99. Honor," I said with a snort. "Honor has no place in survival.

Veronica Roth

#100. I think it's the source material. 27 Dresses was a famous book, and Devil Wears Prada was also a wonderful book, so it's coming out of the novelists who are really creating these wonderful female characters that we want to see on the big screen.

Jerry Bruckheimer