Don't use your conscious past. Use your creative imagination to create a past that belongs to your character. I don't want you to be stuck with your own life. It's too little. - Stella Adler Money is good, but it is not all about a man. You will have successes and reversals, but remember it is your reaction to each of them that counts for your character. - Matthew Pearl You will have many successes and reversals, my boy, but remember it is your reaction to each of them that counts for your character. - Matthew Pearl Drugs age you after mental excitement. Lethargy then. Why? Reaction. A lifetime in a night. Gradually changes your character. - James Joyce Try to think about more important things,' he said. 'Think about your soul, your character. Think about the freezer. It's a solid block of ice. It needs defrosting. There might a steak in there. Concentrate on things like that. There could be a meal in it. - Jonathan Ames The content of your character is yo...

The test of character is having the ability to meet challenges. - Walter Annenberg Friendship is held to be the severest test of character. - Charles Alexander Eastman Someone once said anyone can be great under rosy circumstances, but the true test of character is measured by how well a person makes decisions during difficult times. - Jack Gantos I've always regarded it as a test of character to dislike the Kennedys. I don't really respect anyone who falls for Camelot. - Christopher Hitchens The true test of character is not how much we know how to do, but how we behave when we don't know what to do. - John Holt

There is no character, howsoever good and fine, but it can be destroyed by ridicule, howsoever poor and witless. Observe the ass, for instance: his character is about perfect, he is the choicest spirit among all the humbler animals, yet see what ridicule has brought him to. Instead of feeling complimented when we are called an ass, we are left in doubt. - Mark Twain I will not say that women have no character; rather, they have a new one every day. - Heinrich Heine A strong body makes the mind strong. As to the species of exercises, I advise the gun. While this gives moderate exercise to the body, it gives boldness, enterprise and independence to the mind. Games played with the ball, and others of that nature, are too violent for the body and stamp no character on the mind. Let your gun therefore be your constant companion of your walks. - Thomas Jefferson You silly Arthur! If you knew anything about...anything, which you don't, you would know that I adore you. Everyone in Lond...

I'm involved in some action scenes, so they'll train me for that. I'll be working with my acting coach to prepare for my character. - Aaliyah People tend to overestimate my character," I say quietly. "They think that because I'm small, or a girl, or a Stiff, I can't possibly be cruel. But they're wrong. - Veronica Roth I don't have to live the lives of my characters to write about them. It's about really putting yourself in their shoes. - Jodi Picoult ... except when I get down and write...then I let my imagination go to places I never knew existed and my characters invade my mind. - Mark Alders Heart is what drives us and determines our fate. That is what I need for my characters in my books: a passionate heart. I need mavericks, dissidents, adventurers, outsiders and rebels, who ask questions, bend the rules and take risks. - Isabel Allende My character is self-important, poorly informed, well-intentioned but an idiot,... So we said, Le...

His wise parent disapproved of this uncatly conduct; it indicated a certain lack of character, and no good would come of it. By her own example she tried to guide him. When dinner was served she gave the plate a haughty sniff and walked away, no matter how tempting the dish. That was the way it was done by any self-respecting feline. In a minute or two she returned and condescended to dine, but never with open enthusiasm. - Lilian Jackson Braun It's not men who limit women, it's not straights who limit gays, it's not whites who limit blacks. What limits people is lack of character. What limits people is that they don't have the fucking nerve or imagination to star in their own movie, let alone direct it. - Tom Robbins There's a tendency today to absolve individuals of moral responsibility and treat them as victims of social circumstance. You buy that, you pay with your soul. It's not men who limit women, it's not straights who limit gays, it's not whi...

You put a spell on the dog," I said as we left the house. "Just a small one," said Nightingale. "So magic is real," I said. "Which makes you a...what?" "A wizard." "Like Harry Potter?" Nightingale sighed. "No," he said. "Not like Harry Potter." "In what way?" "I'm not a fictional character," said Nightingale. - Ben Aaronovitch I can't help but think that it's an unfortunate custom to name children after people who come to sticky ends. Even if they are fictional characters, it doesn't bode well for the poor things. There are too many Judes and Tesses and Clarissas and Cordelias around. If we must name our children after literary figures then we should search out happy ones, although it's true they are much harder to find. - Kate Atkinson Jane Austen has a fictional character say, when asked what she is reading, "Oh! it is only a novel," adding, "Only some w...

Beautiful women rarely possess sufficient depth of character to survive without their pretty feathers. - Karen Marie Moning The standards for horror fiction should be no less than those for 'serious literary' fiction in which originality of concept, depth of characters, and attentiveness to language are vitally important. - Joyce Carol Oates It was a compound of self-reliance, hard knocks, heart hunger, unceasing work, and generosity. There was no form of suffering with which the girl could not sympathize, no work she was afraid to attempt, no subject she had investigated she did not understand. These things combined to produce a breadth and depth of character altogether unusual. - Gene Stratton Porter

My initial response was to sue her for defamation of character, but then I realized that I had no character. - Charles Barkley This is not a book. This is libel, slander, defamation of character. This is not a book, in the ordinary sense of the word. No, this is a prolonged insult, a gob of spit in the face of Art, a kick in the pants to God, Man, Destiny, Time, Love, Beauty... what you will. - Henry Miller

I might have some character traits that some might see as innocence or naive. That's because I discovered peace and happiness in my soul. And with this knowledge, I also see the beauty of human life. - Tobey Maguire It is practically an axiom in psychiatry that precocious intellect combined with physical weakness can give rise to many unpleasant character traits - avarice, delusions of grandeur , and obsessive masturbation, to name just a few. - Sam Savage

When you cover politics, you realize that knowing how to talk about character matters more and more. The way we hold ideas is more important than the ideas. - David Brooks Character matters; leadership descends from character. - Rush Limbaugh

Each thing in its way, when true to its own character, is equally beautiful. (p 41) - Edward Abbey There is no character, howsoever good and fine, but it can be destroyed by ridicule, howsoever poor and witless. Observe the ass, for instance: his character is about perfect, he is the choicest spirit among all the humbler animals, yet see what ridicule has brought him to. Instead of feeling complimented when we are called an ass, we are left in doubt. - Mark Twain Comedy, drama, Westerns, sci-fi... it's all fine if the story's compelling and the character is interesting to me. I do like action a lot. - Jensen Ackles Your source material is the people you know, not those you don't know, but every character is an extension of the author's own personality. - Edward Albee She began to see that character is a better possession than money, rank, intellect, or beauty, and to feel that if greatness is what a wise man has defined it to be, 'truth, reverence, and good wil...