Protagonists Quotes

• I'm drawn particularly to stories that evolve out of the character of the protagonist.

  David McCullough

  Character, Stories, Evolve

  Interview with Bruce Cole, www.neh.gov.

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• I have confronted theoretical positions whose protagonists claim that what I take to be historically produced characteristics of what is specifically modern are in fact the timelessly necessary characteristics of all and any moral judgment, of all and any selfhood.

  Alasdair MacIntyre

  Facts, Moral, Judgment

  Alasdair MacIntyre (1981). “After Virtue: A Study in Moral Theory”, Gerald Duckworth & Co Ltd

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• We may be the protagonists of tragedy, but we are also the heroes of our most beautiful and thrilling experiences.

  Shin Kyung-sook

  Beautiful, Hero, Tragedy

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• It is the objective of the protagonist that keeps us in our seats.

  David Mamet

  Objectives, Seats

  David Mamet (1991). “On Directing Film”, Penguin Group USA

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• You have to go out of your way as a suspense novelist to find situations where the protagonists are somewhat helpless and in real danger.

  Nelson DeMille

  Real, Suspense Novels, Novelists

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• Respect your characters, even the ­minor ones. In art, as in life, everyone is the hero of their own particular story; it is worth thinking about what your minor characters' stories are, even though they may intersect only slightly with your protagonist's.

  Sarah Waters

  Art, Hero, Character

  "Sarah Waters's rules for writers" by Sarah Waters, www.theguardian.com. February 23, 2010.

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• Perfect heroines, like perfect heroes, aren't relatable, and if you can't put yourself in the protagonist's shoes, not only will they not inspire you, but the book will be pretty boring.

  Cassandra Clare

  Book, Hero, Shoes

  Interview with Cheryl Brody, www.seventeen.com. March 5, 2008.

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• In most films - especially in regards to the protagonist - really from the get-go they set up some scenario that endears that character to the audience. Or imbues him with some nobility or heroism or something.

  Joaquin Phoenix

  Character, Heroism, Film

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• The idea in The Man that Would Be King was that the music should recreate all that majestic surrounding and emphasize the adventure, but also speak about the frustration or, rather said, the curse of both protagonists, even before happened what happens them.

  Maurice Jarre

  Travel, Kings, Adventure

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• If there's a character type I despise, it's the all-capable, all-knowing, physically perfect protagonist. My idea of hell would be to be trapped in a four-hundred page, first-person, first-tense, running monologue with a character like that. I think writers who produce characters along those lines should graduate from high school and move on.

  Craig Johnson

  Running, Moving, School

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• Your protagonist is your reader’s portal into the story. The more observant he or she can be, the more vivid will be the world you’re creating. They don’t have to be super-educated, they just have to be mentally active. Keep them looking, thinking, wondering, remembering.

  Janet Fitch

  Thinking, Creating, Stories

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• In the past, I'll admit, I've enjoyed being compared to the protagonists in my screenplays.

  Diablo Cody

  Past, Screenplays, Enjoyed

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• Films with female protagonists don't attract many eyeballs. Most of them are perceived as feminist films. If Bollywood starts giving women major roles in entertaining movies, then the audience, too, will open up to the idea of watching commercial films in which the actresses do more than just play the role of the hero's love interest.

  Bipasha Basu

  Hero, Play, Ideas

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• You look like a protagonist.

  Rainbow Rowell

  Looks

  Rainbow Rowell (2013). “Eleanor & Park”, p.113, Macmillan

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• Better to be the architect of something you can endorse than the placard waving protagonist standing in the rain.

  Mr. Wrestling

  Rain, Political, Campaigns

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• A biography is never a biography of one person, of course, but the individual life of your protagonist will never conform. It will always bang up against history.

  Rachel Holmes

  Bangs, Biographies, Individual

  Source: www.guernicamag.com

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• It can stand in the way of narration in cases where we want the protagonist to actually go through some kind of catharsis while our own (non-fictional) experiences and stories lead to something banal or completely uninteresting.

  Sasa Stanisic

  Catharsis, Stories, Want

  Source: therumpus.net

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• We can't help identifying with the protagonist. It's coded in our movie-going DNA.

  Roger Ebert

  Dna, Helping, Identifying

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• The only thing that makes me put down a book is if the characters are boring, or the situations aren't fraught with the potential for some great change or I don't mind if an author torments his protagonist, but I do expect a decent payoff in the end.

  Michael Boatman

  Book, Character, Mind

  Source: www.sfsignal.com

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• A lot of narrative films leave you no space for anything else but eating popcorn. I want to go in the complete opposite direction. I have to evacuate all psychology, to be less a protagonist and more a presence.

  Elia Suleiman

  Opposites, Space, Psychology

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• With a horror movie, you're making a metaphor. You're making a personalized nightmare for the protagonist.

  Jordan Peele

  Nightmare, Horror, Metaphor

  Source: www.motherjones.com

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• I'd been upstaged, demoted from protagonist in my own drama to comic relief in my parents' tragedy

  Alison Bechdel

  Drama, Parent, Tragedy

  Alison Bechdel (2007). “Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic”, p.58, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• Once a newspaper touches a story, the facts are lost forever, even to the protagonists.

  Norman Mailer

  Forever, Facts, Stories

  Esquire, June 1960

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• But protagonists are protagonists and heroes are heroes.

  David Baldacci

  Hero

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• I'm interested in flawed protagonists. I was raised on them.

  Laura Dern

  Flaws, Raised, Flawed

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