I understand why creative people like dark but American audiences don't like dark. They like story. They do not respond to nervous breakdowns and unhappy episodes that lead nowhere. They like their characters to be a part of the action. They like strength not weakness a chance to work out any dilemma.

Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls the most massive characters are seared with scars.

It's kind of ironic that the two sports with the greatest characters boxing and horse racing have both been on the decline. In both cases it's for the lack of a suitable hero.

I find interesting characters or lessons that resonate with people and sometimes I write about them in the sports pages sometimes I write them in a column sometimes in a novel sometimes a play or sometimes in nonfiction. But at the core I always say to myself 'Is there a story here? Is this something people want to read?'

I have in some ways saved characters that have been marginalized by society by playing them - and having them still have dignity and still survive still get through it.

Psychology is the science of the intellects characters and behavior of animals including man.

'A Bug's Life' is a really funny movie and the characters have such different personalities. The movie is happy and then gets really sad and I'm like W'hoa I'm feeling this way and this movie is about bugs!'

Since it's based on my parents it's more emotionally close to me than some of my more surreal plays. And then I like the balance of the comic and the sad. It should play as funny but you should care about the characters and feel sad for them.

I've never thought of my characters as being sad. On the contrary they are full of life. They didn't choose tragedy. Tragedy chose them.

I've met so many fans of daytime television who've watched the shows with their moms and grandmas and feel like they've known the characters their whole lives. It's sad for them to have to say goodbye to their favorite soaps and characters. We don't want that to happen to the 'Days' fans.

I tend to play strong characters and people just assume that I would want to play romantic comedies which I would love to do but there are other women that do it so great and they maybe couldn't do what I do play the kind of characters that I play.

The vampire was a complete change from the usual romantic characters I was playing but it was a success.

I saw Tequila Sunrise as a romantic picture with complex bigger than life characters.

I confess I am a romantic. I love romance and I think it's really fun and delicious and some of my favorite films are love stories. I think that you just get a chance to fall in love with the characters so much and you get to explore their lives so deeply.

There's immense fun to be had as long as you can sort of sneak it past DC. I have been told on occasion that I need to have more respect for these characters.

I have too much respect for the characters I play to make them anything but as real as they can possibly be. I have a great deal of respect for all of them otherwise I wouldn't do them. And I don't want to screw them by not portraying them honestly.

I did private study for about a month five days a week six hours a day. I came to understand the character in ways that I never would've previous to that. I was so innocent in respect to ways of creating characters.