I didn't doubt for a moment that she had read them all, or that they were the right books to own. Further, they seemed to be an organic combination of her mind and personality, whereas mine struck me as functionally separate, straining to describe a character I hoped to grow into. Julian Barnes
About This Quote

Neil Gaiman had some very profound observations about how he thought some writers think about their characters. In this quote, he talks about how not all writers approach their characters as a single, cohesive whole. For example, he explains that his characters often seem to be more like a collection of distinct parts instead of a single character with a set of real thoughts and feelings. When he looks at his characters, Gaiman sees a bunch of distinct elements that make up a single person.

He describes his characters as “functional,” rather than organic. Functional characters don’t have the depth that organic characters do. They are just pieces of a character that can be assembled in different ways depending on the author’s needs and the story they are trying to tell.

Source: The Sense Of An Ending

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