By Ethan Canin
2. It doesn’t matter if your lead character is good or bad. He just has to be interesting, and he has to be good at what he does.
By David Chase
3. Remember that you should be able to identify each character by what he or she says. Each one must sound different from the others. And they should not all sound like you.
By Anne Lamott
4.Any fiction should be a story. In any story there are three elements: persons, a situation, and the fact that in the end something has changed. If nothing has changed, it isn’t a story.
By Malcolm Cowley
5.Dialogue which does not move the story along, or add to the mood of the story, or have an easily definable reason for being there at all (such as to establish important characterization), should be considered superfluous and therefore cut.
By Bill Pronzini
Comments