Top 100 Main Character Quotes
#1. And at NYU, I went to the Atlantic Theater Company, and they have two main points. One of them is to always be active in something instead of just feeling it. And the other is figuring out your character.
Elizabeth Olsen
#2. I'll tell you what I really enjoy. We all go to the movies, we all watch television, we know what they're about, how they work. When the main character is a cop or a spy, it's very exciting, but I also very much enjoy when the main characters are nobodies - a trucker.
Nathan Fillion
#3. Getting old always means a hardening of the main trait of one's character.
Jean Guehenno
#4. I think main storylines are what always intrigued me, with those that were the relationships between the characters against whatever backdrop, whether it was in an ordinary universe or a universe in the future.
John Noble
#5. The main reason for rewriting is not to achieve a smooth surface, but to discover the inner truth of your characters.
Saul Bellow
#6. If you don't care about the main character in a novel, then you probably won't care about the story either.
Giuseppe Bianco
#7. Whenever people say they didn't like the main character of a book, they mean they didn't like the book. The main character has to be a friend? I don't get that.
Melissa Bank
#8. Fucking NASA. In a horror movie, when everyone is hugging their shins and shouting for the main character to turn and run, or crawl under the bed, or call the cops, or grab a gun, NASA would be the dude in the back shouting, Go see what made that noise! And take a flashlight!
Hugh Howey
#9. Everybody is a main character to someone...
Amy Harmon
#10. Generally I wouldn't accept work on projects where I didn't agree with the sensibilities behind the main character.
Rhianna Pratchett
#11. You are the main character in the story of your life, but other people are the main characters of their own lives. And sometimes you can find healing just by playing a supporting role in someone else's experience.
Timothy Kurek
#12. The same way that you are the main character of your story, you are only a secondary character in everybody else's story.
Don Miguel Ruiz
#13. In Shakespearean tragedy the main source of the convulsion which produces suffering and death is never good: good contributes to this convulsion only from its tragic implication with its opposite in one and the same character.
Andrew Coyle Bradley
#14. Allowing alternative narrative modes in popular entertainment may seem obvious, yet when you turn a pilot into the people upstairs and the main character isn't after what she wants by the top of page two, you get treated as if you've failed at writing.
Andrea Seigel
#15. I think 'The Searcher' is a departure from my first because it's less grounded in religion and is far more rooted in the mythic tradition: more of an existential thriller where the main character is actually the central mystery, and his journey is all about trying to figure himself out.
Simon Toyne
#16. Wise is the man who does not disdain any character and instead, examining him with a searching look, plumbs him to the very main-springs of his being.
Nikolai Gogol
#17. The writer must be a participant in the scene ... like a film director who writes his own scripts, does his own camera work, and somehow manages to film himself in action, as the protagonist or at least the main character.
Hunter S. Thompson
#18. With fiction, the works of women are often over-interpreted as autobiography, especially when the main character is a woman, especially if she is seen as privileged.
Kate Zambreno
#19. Even as I was writing 'Empire State,' I knew there were more adventures for the main character, private detective Rad Bradley, to have. I also knew that the world was far larger than what I'd presented in book one.
Adam Christopher
#21. I don't want to work just for the sake of working. Generally, if a good script comes in, I read it, and if it appeals to me, it appeals to me. And it doesn't have to be anything - it doesn't have to be the main character; it doesn't have to be a huge part.
Alison Doody
#22. Have you ever seen that movie "Despicable me," the first one? Gru, the main character has become a criminal, and in a simple way, the creators of the movie suggest that he became that way because he was neglected by his mother.
Rita Chester
#23. The Big Bang Theory: When geeky scientists can be main characters in a hit prime time series, you know there's hope for the world.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
#24. I moved to the east coast when everybody else was going to the west coast. I (then) chased it back toward the west coast. I built my career up by doing small roles (which led) to principal roles and getting bumped into main character roles.
Drew Waters
#25. With a film, things constantly have to go up in the story, and you're constantly putting pressure on the main character. It allows to go really deep into what its relationship is.
Jennifer Lee
#26. Writing a main character is very important to me. Because each time I create one, it feels like another piece of me in a different world.
B.A. Gabrielle
#27. For a week, you carried my short story all folded up in your jeans pocket, said you felt sorry for the main character in it. That main character was me, of course.
Franki Elliot
#28. 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
#29. My first time playing a main character was in 'Seventeen Years.' It was directed by famous Sixth Generation director Zhang Yuan, but it wasn't a large commercial film.
Li Bingbing
#30. I would love to write a script where the main character is a woman. I know I can direct a film where the main character is a woman. I cannot write that film.
Philippe Falardeau
#31. But when you read books you almost feel like you're out there in the world. Like you're going on this adventure right with the main character. At least, that's the way I do it. It's actually not that bad. Even if it is mad nerdy.
Matt De La Pena
#32. There are no perfectly honorable men; but every true man has one main point of honor and a few minor ones.
George Bernard Shaw
#33. Think of every character as a main character. They believe they're the main characters in their stories. No one should just be an obstacle.
Ben Edlund
#34. Yeah. I can see that. I feel like sidekicks aren't as well developed as the main character in a story, but they're essential in defining that main character. And the protagonist needs the sidekick more than the sidekick needs the protagonist.
Penny Reid
#35. The life story of the five main characters and the secondary characters around them allows Jonathan Franzen to present the full impetus and extent of the world picture of the West at the end of the 20th century.
Batya Gur
#36. Hearing the faraway sounds of children at recess makes me understand that I am no longer life's main character.
Alec Sulkin
#37. We must remember that there's more than one story and plot in every novel. There are at least as many stories as there are main characters, and each of these stories has to have multiple plots to keep it going - blood and bone, nerve and tissue, forgotten longing and unknown events.
Walter Mosley
#38. Books have sexes; or to be more precise, books have genders. They do in my head, anyway. Or at least, the ones that I write do. And these are genders that have something, but not everything, to do with the gender of the main character of the story.
Neil Gaiman
#39. The main thing is the ability to control your instrument, which, in the actor, is yourself. Look the way you want the character to look. Sound the way you want the character to sound. Once you've trained the instrument to do what you want, you're in control, and you're free.
Geraldine Page
#40. What helped me a lot was that I chose an American lead protagonist, because that liberated a lot from my own knowledge. If I had approached it from the perspective of an Indian main character, I think I would have assumed a lot of knowledge and I would have resented the presence of the author.
Karan Bajaj
#41. Despite my vast interest in other universes and new ideas and space, travel and time travel, which by the way I think is impossible, the basic thing is human character, which is the main thing of most writers.
Philip Jose Farmer
#42. To us he's like... like scenery, in the background of our lives, but for him, he's the main character. He has a life and a job and a whole story. He's a real person. And to him, we're the background scenery.
Dan Wells
#43. When my main character in 'Heat' climbs the tower, the highest diving platform, hoping to resume competitive diving after an injury, I am there with her, sensing the cold grit under her instep. The details are what matter - they are the experience.
Michael Cadnum
#44. Trial Is Part of the Journey For a moment, think back about your favorite fairy tale. In that story the main character may be a princess or a peasant; she might be a mermaid or a milkmaid, a ruler or a servant. You will find one thing all have in common: they must overcome adversity.
Dieter F. Uchtdorf
#45. An elevator pitch for an entertainment product should also consist of four components: 1. Your product name and category 2. The main character's ambition 3. The conflict he or she encounters 4. The real significance of the story Here's
Michael Hyatt
#46. I abhor crime novels in which the main character can behave however he or she pleases, or do things that normal people do not do, without those actions having social consequences.
Stieg Larsson
#47. I saw the main character played by Mads Mikkelsen, and he's amazing. Hannibal had that going for it.
Michael Pitt
#48. the main character saying things like "In my world, chocolate is a vegetable.
Susan Wiggs
#49. The Holy Spirit's main ministry is not to give thrills but to create in us Christlike character.
J.I. Packer
#50. Writing a new film about cereal killers. Not serial killers, cereal killers. The main character can eat two, three boxes at a time.
Dov Davidoff
#51. Of course, 'The Last Stand' has a villain who is traveling to the border to fulfill his own desires, but it's more about the main character. The Sheriff putting a stop to this villain and defending his town. 'The Last Stand' is more about protecting something. About protecting a value.
Kim Jee-woon
#52. If the main character's not in jeopardy - physical, psychological, emotional, whatever - then you don't have any tension, and you don't have a story.
Stephen Graham Jones
#53. You're the main character of your life," Jacie said. "You're too important to die. That's how everybody feels.
Jodi Lynn Anderson
#54. Martial (the main character of LOCUS SOLUS) has a very interesting conception of literary beauty: the work must contain nothing real, no observations about the world or the mind, nothing but completely imaginary constructions. These are in themselves ideas from an extrahuman world.
Pierre Janet
#55. On reading the first part of Anthony Powell's four-part masterpiece, 'A Dance to the Music of Time,' I was struck by one of the characters - an irritating peripheral character- who keeps showing up in the main protagonist's life.
Rebecca Pidgeon
#56. I'm not the protagonist of a novel or anything...
I'm just a normal college student who likes to read...
But...
If I were to write a book with me as tge main character...
It would be...
...A tragedy.
Sui Ishida
#57. It is only in romances that people undergo a sudden metamorphosis. In real life, even after the most terrible experiences, the main character remains exactly the same.
Isadora Duncan
#58. Once you're imagining being the main character, and you're having the conversations and actually being there, the magic in fiction writing takes over.
Will Hobbs
#59. I was torn. The evil, horny side of me wanted to know more. The good side wanted to feel sympathy and pretend he'd never heard it. I think 'evil horny' is gonna win. - Tyler Campbell (main character)
Shaina Richmond
#60. Main characters never die in books. If they did, the story would be ruined, or over."
"Everybody is a main character to someone. There are no minor characters.
Amy Harmon
#61. I couldn't bloody believe a prime-time TV show would have an Iraqi ex-Republican Guard torturer as a main character.
Naveen Andrews
#62. The main thing about improvising is listening so if something happens that wasn't expected and you know your character, you know what has to happen in this scene, you can react to that in a way that's honest and it might take you in a different direction to go to the same place.
Vince Vaughn
#63. Example is not the main thing in influencing others. It is the only thing.
Albert Schweitzer
#64. 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
#65. My first two books, I was very close to my main character, stuck inside their head. And then with 'Arrogance,' I broke into many different voices. I introduce many different characters, and that helped me to develop a confidence to move between different characters, between different voices.
Joanna Scott
#66. Personally, I believe "Young Adult" to be an arbitrary title that means the book "Can be enjoyed by anyone/Has a main character who's not quite an adult/Isn't really boring.
Shannon Hale
#67. I get really flowery and verbose in my adult books, but I don't think I dumb down my Y.A. It's just cleaner and more snappy. And the adult books have multiple points-of-view. In my Y.A., it's always third person from the main character's perspective.
Gail Carriger
#68. My odds were looking about as good as a main character in Game of Thrones.
Cora Carmack
#69. Poe was the first writer to write about main characters who were bad guys or who were mad guys, and those are some of my favorite stories,
Stephen King
#70. 'Cloud Atlas' is for everybody. The main character in the movie is humanity.
Lilly Wachowski
#71. I'm not a sympathetic main character. My quirks are not lovable. I am not clumsy. I am not overwhelmed by life. I am not unlucky in love.
Rahul Kanakia
#72. Hating a main character for being too weak is like expecting a human to be able to do everything. Stories aren't all sunshine and rainbows.
B.A. Gabrielle
#73. I do think that in the near future, if it hasn't happened already, people will be able to use technology to design their own novels, perhaps with individuals themselves as the main character. In other words, everything is being individualized and narrowed.
Don DeLillo
#74. My main problem is that over and over again, I try to get all my characters to say stuff that I think is so witty or erudite you know, so that everybody will go.
Anne Lamott
#75. Trust your heart if the sea catch fire, live by love though the stars walk backwards.
-I feel like, Charlie the main character can only communicate his bother who past away through nature and that he needs to move on and find love evn if his brother is not there physically.
Ben Sherwood
#76. I was very conscious of race as I was writing. I was lucky to have spent real time in Portuguese Africa, but I am white and my main characters are white, outsiders at sea in the "Dark Continent."
Jon Weisman
#77. He lied with a smile that paralyzed reason." [Abby Chandlis - main character of The List]
Steve Martini
#78. It's also very important to make sure that the main character and the player are completely in synch.
Sam Lake
#79. The main character and the most important character are not always the same person - you have to know the difference.
John Irving
#80. Affect the main character or characters and you win the game.
Deyth Banger
#81. If you're making a movie about the effects of time, you kind of have to engage time as the main character.
Ryan Gosling
#82. I used my daughter's crayons for each main character. One end of the wallpaper was the beginning of the story, and the other end was the end, and then there was all that middle part, which was the middle.
Kurt Vonnegut
#83. Minho looks like a main character of a manga.
Onew
#84. All people live in a fantasy in which they are the main character.
Keiichi Sigsawa
#85. I'm a gay man who came from the last years of illegality. That focused my whole character. I think it focused everyone's character in a way. You saw yourself as outside of the main structure.
Rupert Everett
#86. I never feel weird about being the main character in the nontransferable, nonexistent movie of my life. That's totally fine. What makes me nervous is a growing suspicion that this movie is fucked up and devoid of meaning. The auteur is a nihilist.
Chuck Klosterman
#87. For my second novel, The Apothecary's Daughter, my editor encouraged me to think of another unusual profession for a woman to have. That led to the main character, Lilly Haswell, who finds herself doing the work of an apothecary at a time when it was illegal for women to do so.
Julie Klassen
#88. She's the main character in her story, just like I'm the main character in mine.
Marisa De Los Santos
#89. It's really a misconception to identify the writer with the main character, given that the author creates all the characters in the book. In certain ways, I'm every character.
Rachel Kushner
#90. I like emotional horror. I don't like horror movies. I hate them. But, if you can make emotional horror movies, I'm in. If I can care and root for the main character, then I'm in.
Kevin Williamson
#91. In a film, you always try to have your main character be changed by the end.
Frederic Tcheng
#92. That's been my main interest for the last 15 years, is to really make sure the story and the characters take precedence over everything else, and that I give them everything I can to make them exist as actual people.
Daniel Clowes
#93. That's the main thing, looking for interesting characters, good directors, and experiences where you're growing and learning.
Nicholas Hoult
#94. I liked the push and pull of that, between the outer political world and the inner personal lives of the characters. It's also real life ... Many of us are keenly aware of world events, but break your nose and I bet that's the main thing you'd be focused on.
Said Sayrafiezadeh
#95. We don't see many films in which someone with schizophrenia is the main character.
Brian Lindstrom
#96. People are always thinking that I'm the main character in my books, but each one has been different, and sometimes they've been men.
Sue Miller
#97. When the audience understands that the main character has a very serious need to change his own heart and mind, the hook is set, and the audience is irrevocably invested.
Libbie Hawker
#98. Small boys often produce their own plays; but usually the parts are not written out. They hardly need to be, for the main line of each character is always "Stick 'em up!" In these plays the curtain is always rung down on a set of corpses, for small boys are by nature through and uncompromising.
A.S. Neill
#99. Once I checked my email, I would get lost in a book so I could feel the main character's pain instead of mine, laugh at her missteps rather than lament my own, and cheer for the happy ending that seemed to elude me.
Meredith Schorr
#100. Have you ever had the feeling that you aren't the main character in the story of your life? That you fill a more minor role- supporting cast, maybe, comic relief, or even antagonist.
Elana K. Arnold
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