I don't know where people got the idea that characters in books are supposed to be likable. Books are not in the business of creating merely likeable characters with whom you can have some simple identification with. Books are in the business of creating great stories that make you're brain go ahhbdgbdmerhbergurhbudgerbudbaaarr. John Green
About This Quote

In the early 1980's, Christopher Moore wrote a book called, "Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal". It was a book about a talking sheep who was a Christ-like figure. In it, he said something very interesting about why people love to read about characters they identify with. He said that instead of simply creating a character that is likeable, he created a character that is unlikable and the reader wants to see him succeed. He said that it doesn't matter if you hate his character because at the end of the book he will be doing exactly what he needed to do to achieve his goals.

Some Similar Quotes
  1. It's funny. No matter how hard you try, you can't close your heart forever. And the minute you open it up, you never know what's going to come in. But when it does, you just have to go for it! Because if you don't, there's... - Kirstie Alley

  2. Do you know how there are moments when the world moves so slowly you can feel your bones shifting, your mind tumbling? When you think that no matter what happens to you for the rest of your life, you will remember every last detail of... - Jodi Picoult

  3. This is the strangest life I have ever known. - Jim Morrison

  4. When I buy a new book, I always read the last page first, that way in case I die before I finish, I know how it ends. That, my friend, is a dark side. - Nora Ephron

  5. Young people, nowadays, imagine that money is everything. Yes, murmured Lord Henry, settling his button-hole in his coat; and when they grow older they know it. - Oscar Wilde

More Quotes By John Green
  1. I'd like to do a Christmas album. I've never done a Christmas album.

  2. It's so funny because I listen to songs that I recorded that I didn't really know anything about at the time. Later on I'm starting to feel the songs. Sing them first, feel them later.

  3. I don't know what keeps me going. Sometimes I wonder... I think it's just pure perseverance and wanting to succeed and having that burning desire to always have success.

Related Topics