'What It Is' was based on this class I've been teaching for 10 years - I wanted to write a book about writing that didn't mention stuff like story structure, protagonists, and all those things that we know about only because they already exist in stories.

Lynda Barry

I'm more comfortable writing traditional protagonists. But 'Steve Jobs' and 'The Social Network' have antiheroes. I like to write antiheroes as if they're making their case to God about why they should be allowed into heaven. I have to find something in that character that is like me and write to that.

Aaron Sorkin

You don't need to like your protagonists.

Anson Mount

The studios aren't lining up to make films about black protagonists, black people being autonomous and independent.

Ava DuVernay

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

Look at the Coen brothers. All their minor characters are as interesting as their protagonists. If the smaller characters are well-written, the whole world of the film becomes enriched. It's not the size of the thing, but the detail.

Brendan Gleeson

I think as women we've always been very used to growing up reading and identifying with male protagonists, especially in fantasy. There's a saying in publishing that girls will read about boys, but boys will only read about boys, and it's important to give women strong heroines.

Cassandra Clare

We only see female protagonists who are likeable, with one cute flaw, such as adorable clumsiness. I'm fed up with it.

Catherine Reitman

Characters stretching their legs in some calm haven generally don't make for interesting protagonists.

Darin Strauss

But protagonists are protagonists and heroes are heroes.

David Baldacci

As a storyteller, I've always been fascinated with the idea of recreating this notion of choices in fiction. My dream was to put the audience in the shoes of the main protagonists, let them make their own decisions, and by doing so, let them tell their own stories.

David Cage

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

Diablo Cody

Part of my purpose in my books has been to tell the complete story of a relationship and a marriage, not just to end with 'happily ever after,' leaving the protagonists at the altar or in bed... I wanted to show some of the complicated business of actually living a successful marriage.

Diana Gabaldon

I try to have something in common with my protagonists, especially when I'm writing in the first person.

Emily Giffin

At some point, I stumbled across my two main protagonists: William E. Dodd, a mild-mannered professor of history picked by Roosevelt to be America's first ambassador to Nazi Germany, and Dodd's comely and rather wild daughter, Martha, who at first was enthralled with the so-called Nazi revolution.

Erik Larson

An ambitious, surreal tale of the love between a young Arab girl sold into marriage and the orphan boy she adopts, 'Habibi' spans multiple eras of conflict and change, stretching the lifetimes of its two protagonists over many centuries.

G. Willow Wilson

The lead character in 'Yennai Arindhaal' is like an extension of the protagonists of 'Kaakha Kaakha' and 'Vettaiyaadu Vilaiyaadu.'

Gautham Menon

It is a commonplace that the League of Nations is not yet-what its most enthusiastic protagonists intended it to be.

Hjalmar Branting

The protagonists that I've played tend to be people who make trouble. Or even if they don't make it, they certainly disrupt things. It's fun to do that in life as well. But I don't think I ever played myself.

James Spader

When writers for adults contemplate Venice, they behold decay, dereliction and death. Thomas Mann, Daphne du Maurier, L. P. Hartley and Salley Vickers have all dispatched hapless protagonists to Italy, where they see Venice - and die.

Jan Mark

I've been playing with this idea in my mind that the hero's journey that we're all taught as screenwriters may resonate more specifically for male protagonists and maybe even male viewers.

Jill Soloway