character development quotes

Any hand that I’ve shaken, any person that I met when I was Joe Blow, now that I’m this guy Kevin Hart, has come back. That’s why I treat everybody with respect. I’m always a nice pleasant guy to meet because when they come back to you, they remember.

No change of circumstances can repair a defect of character.

People don’t usually compliment your character.

On ‚Think Like a Man,‘ they got the best out of me because they allowed me to bring my own cadences and opinions to the character that I was playing. I think we got the best of that particular character.

History is present in all my novels. And whether I am directly talking about the sociological moment or just immersing my character in the environment, I am very aware of it.

Every hero becomes a bore at last.

I think when people mean that Discworld books have become darker they really mean the series is growing up. In ‚The Colour of Magic‘ most of the city is set alight. It’s a joke, in much the same way that the Earth is destroyed almost at the start of Douglas Adams’s ‚The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.‘

A good novel tells us the truth about its hero; but a bad novel tells us the truth about its author.

When I was making the early stuff, I never expected it to be so big. I was in my own kind of bubble. I never wanted to tour; I just wanted to create music and make a diary I could put out into the world. And sometimes, I became the characters.

For some reason, all my characters come to me with their names attached to them. I never have to search for the names.

Characters do not change. Opinions alter, but characters are only developed.

Man seems to be capable of great virtues but not of small virtues; capable of defying his torturer but not of keeping his temper.

For an author, the nice characters aren’t much fun. What you want are the screwed up characters. You know, the characters that are constantly wondering if what they are doing is the right thing, characters that are not only screwed up but are self-tapping screws. They’re doing it for themselves.

Character develops itself in the stream of life.

In acting, you have to pull from real-life situations, from people, to help develop a character.

To educate a man in mind and not in morals is to educate a menace to society.

The funny thing is that I feel close to all my characters. Deep, deep inside them all.

A noble person attracts noble people, and knows how to hold on to them.

When a family film is done well, there’s a character that every member of the audience can relate to. I want to be one of those guys.

I’m not interested in cutting the feet off my characters or stretching them to make them fit my certain political view.

It’s the journey of self, I guess. You start with this kind of loner, outside guy, which a lot of people can relate to, and he goes out into the world.

Plot exposition that can be gently wound out by the authorial voice and internal monologue of a character in the length of a page has to be delivered in a matter of seconds on the stage.

The resistance that you fight physically in the gym and the resistance that you fight in life can only build a strong character.

You cannot be a hero without being a coward.

An unimaginative person can neither be reverent or kind.

The most propagandistic element of ‚Frozen‘ was the transformation of the prince at the beginning of the story, who was a perfectly good guy, into a villain with no character development whatsoever about three-quarters of the way to the ending.

An employer of mine back in the ’80s was kind enough to take me on after a rough patch, and it made a big difference in my life that I knew I was the sort of person who showed up on time. It’s a basic tell of character.

Men are only as great as they are kind.

Scouting is nothing less than applied Christianity.

The first test of a truly great man is his humility. By humility I don’t mean doubt of his powers or hesitation in speaking his opinion, but merely an understanding of the relationship of what he can say and what he can do.

The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.

The formation of one’s character ought to be everyone’s chief aim.

Some virtues are only seen in affliction and others only in prosperity.

I wanted to imbue Ziggy with real flesh and blood and muscle, and it was imperative that I find Ziggy and be him.

Only God Himself fully appreciates the influence of a Christian mother in the molding of character in her children.

No one gossips about other people’s secret virtues.

Action is character.

Erudition – that is, reading, writing, and arithmetic – is taught in the schools; but where is the more important quality, character, taught? Nowhere in particular. There is no authorized training for children in character.

Patience is not simply the ability to wait – it’s how we behave while we’re waiting.

You’ve got to learn to survive a defeat. That’s when you develop character.

It’s very rare that you get a director that lets you be creative and bring what you feel your character should do or should be.

There are thousands of boys being wasted daily to our country through being left to become characterless, and, therefore, useless wasters, a misery to themselves and an eyesore and a danger to the nation. They could be saved if only the right surroundings or environment were given to them at the receptive time of their lives.

Where is the man who has the strength to be true, and to show himself as he is?

To make your children capable of honesty is the beginning of education.

Trust should be the basis for all our moral training.

I care not what others think of what I do, but I care very much about what I think of what I do! That is character!

Courage that grows from constitution often forsakes a man when he has occasion for it; courage which arises from a sense of duty acts; in a uniform manner.

We should every night call ourselves to an account: what infirmity have I mastered today? what passions opposed? what temptation resisted? what virtue acquired? Our vices will abate of themselves if they be brought every day to the shrift.

It is well for the world that in most of us, by the age of thirty, the character has set like plaster, and will never soften again.

I notice that my characters go out to dinner and have fun and take these great trips, but I spend so much time on their lives, I don’t have much of a personal life of my own. I have to sort of remember to fill out that little notebook on me.

A man must be big enough to admit his mistakes, smart enough to profit from them, and strong enough to correct them.

Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved.

Weak character will neutralize all of the other possible good qualities a person might possess.

Good character is not formed in a week or a month. It is created little by little, day by day. Protracted and patient effort is needed to develop good character.

Who sows virtue reaps honor.

It’s always appealing to play a character that has to overcome himself as well as an obstacle. It makes the drama so much deeper.

One of the amazing things about ‚Seven Samurai‘ is that there are a lot of characters. And considering you have so many, and they all have shaved heads, and you’ve got good guys and bad guys and peasants, you get to understand a lot of them without too much being said.

Life is a series of experiences, each one of which makes us bigger, even though sometimes it is hard to realize this. For the world was built to develop character, and we must learn that the setbacks and grieves which we endure help us in our marching onward.

My children came out as individuals in their own right. They were not my products. They had their own characters and were very strong-minded. I gave them a lot of freedom when they were still very young. The one thing they got from me is morals. They would never betray anyone. They are really good people.

My role 14 years ago in Richard III – that was the first time I played a bad guy and learned a lot about it – they have all the fun!