This is a work of fiction. All the characters in it human and otherwise are imaginary excepting only certain of the fairy folk whom it might be unwise to offend by casting doubts on their existence. Or lack thereof.

I'm so sick of hearing how there's no strong roles for women. I don't care about strong roles. I just want to see women who are characters! A nun a serial killer a housewife as long as there's some depth there.

I don't think that the feminist movement has done much for the characters of women.

When written in Chinese the word 'crisis' is composed of two characters. One represents danger and the other represents opportunity.

I'm actually reading 'World War Z' again! It's incredibly realistic and it's written as an oral history through interviews with different characters. Max Brooks wrote this book in so many different voices. There are about forty or so. It's incredible. When I finish 'World War Z' I'm going to go back and start again on the 'Game of Thrones' series.

I never practice before I never work hours on a script. I just choose my characters and trust them and after that it's about the director taking your hand.

I can create countries just as I can create the actions of my characters. That is why a lot of travel seems to me a waste of time.

I like to hide behind the characters I play. Despite the public perception I am a very private person who has a hard time with the fame thing.

I decided that if I were to write a teen series I'd want to set it in a place that was familiar to me - Manhattan where I'd grown up - and I'd model the characters on myself and my friends.

In hard-core science fiction in which characters are responding to a change in environment caused by nature or the universe or technology what readers want to see is how people cope and so the character are present to cope or fail to cope.

There's a lot more to see when you're playing and because of the advances in technology it makes room for all kinds of new characters.

You know a lot of those angry sort of Southern man characters that I've been doing are based on different people I might've had as like a soccer coach or as a teacher.

They weren't impatient for the boys to turn into cartoons again. They awarded sympathy gave compassion. Because deep down they had found parts of themselves in the characters. You said it George.

I don't really distinguish between sympathy and honesty when I'm writing. The two go together - I'm interested in inhabiting my characters seeing the world through their eyes.

For me I don't feel it is a success in the career to be the pretty woman career success comes from being characters who tell us something about the truth.

If there is any secret to my success I think it's that my characters are very real to me. I feel everything they feel and therefore I think my readers care about them.

It's funny because in drama school my greatest strength was my range. So my early career was like that: I played all kinds of different characters.