“I've been killing characters my entire career, maybe I'm just a bloody minded bastard, I don't know, [but] when my characters are in danger, I want you to be afraid to turn the page (and to do that) you need to show right from the beginning that you're playing for keeps.”

“You're just a character in my dream.""You wish.""I didn't mean my love interest," she replied defensively. "You'd have better hair. You're the character I dreamed up because the rest of the dream was making me homesick." "Maybe you're the character I dreamed up to scare myself awake.""That's not very nice!""You made fun of my hair. I like it this way. Short and simple."I don't mind short. Mine is short.""Then what's wrong with mine?" Jason challenged."Maybe we should talk about something else.""Like the guy on a horse coming to kill us?""It needs more style," she muttered."The horse?""Your hair.""I forgot to bring my gel when I got eaten by a hippo.”

“As far as my characters doing what I want them to, I'm afraid I'm not a real writer like the rest of you because I can manage to force them into just about anything. One day I hope my characters lead me around by the nose, talking to me and yelling NO! Or YES! Whatever the case may be. However, until then, I'll keep railroading their asses.”

“Oh, good lord, Jeff. Don't go getting all emotional on me. I've been getting it from my mom, my dad, my sister, the freaking MAILMAN--I don't need it from you, too. All I ask is that you promise me one thing.''What?''Just water the plants while I'm gone, all right?''You don't have plants, Tad.''I know. I just always wanted to say that.”

“He was everything I needed because his entire character had been molded by my deepest wants and desires. He was my rock when I cried, my playmate when I laughed, and my hero when I needed to imagine that one existed for me.”

“Characters take on life sometimes by luck, but I suspect it is when you can write more entirely out of yourself, inside the skin, heart, mind, and soul of a person who is not yourself, that a character becomes in his own right another human being on the page.”