On making characters generaly

After all is said and done, people, living "human" people — people with the qualities which make us feel their humanity — are the most interesting things in the world, and much more worth while than what happens to them (plot), or where it happens (setting). We remember Kipling's Terence Mulvaney and Mrs. Deland's Dr. Lay¬endar— we know and love them after the stories we read about them have all merged into a blur.

There are two pre-requisites to successful character portrayal. You must first know your characters, know them so well that you can tell exactly what they would do and say in given circumstances, know them so well that you feel sense-impressions of their height, and com¬plexion, and clothing, and gestures, of the sound of their voices and all their little mannerisms. But knowledge alone, cold-blooded, analytical knowl¬edge, will not give you the power to create living, " human " people. For this you must feel your characters, you must be able to live inside of them — actually to transform yourself into each one of them, to rejoice, to suffer, to be tempted — in your own person to live their lives and ex¬perience their emotions so that you may portray them, whether saints or sinners or half-way-between, with understanding sympathy.