I am really drawn to damaged characters, and I have a lot of sympathy for them. Making those complicated characters empathetic is something to strive for. It’s too easy to create a good guy or a good girl. – Paul Haggis
The knowledge that we have brother scouts working in the same uniform, to the same ends, in the same way, in all corners of the Empire, cannot but make scouts proud of their brotherhood, and cannot fail to bring them into closer sympathy. – Robert Baden-Powell
I am convinced that, despite what you think of Obama, I don’t think Obama has a person-to-person connection with people. I think people love him because of his race and feel sorry for him, object of sympathy. I think people feel he’s a victim, he portrays himself as a victim of America; he gets sympathy that way. – Rush Limbaugh
Most of my younger Native American friends are not in any way looking for sympathy, and they’re not looking to lay guilt on anybody. They have their dignity, and they do what they do. – Robbie Robertson
The easiest way for readers to connect with characters and feel sympathy is to make the character entertaining, sympathetic and likeable. – Randa Abdel-Fattah
Too often, we get attention and sympathy by being a victim. If we’re invested in someone being our villain, we must love being the victim. We have to let go of both characters in the story. – Regina Brett
In 1800, in the first interparty contest, the Federalists warned that presidential candidate Thomas Jefferson, because of his sympathy expressed at the outset of the French Revolution, was ‘the son of a half-breed Indian squaw’ who would put opponents under the guillotine. – Robert Dallek
Fess up, ‘Hunger Games’ fans: Does anyone care about Peeta or find him attractive? He’s the Ron Weasley of the series: he gets points for callow valor and sympathy for his run of bad luck, but he remains a pasty, earnest bore. – Richard Corliss
The loss of a friend is like that of a limb; time may heal the anguish of the wound, but the loss cannot be repaired. – Robert Southey
What does love look like? It has the hands to help others. It has the feet to hasten to the poor and needy. It has eyes to see misery and want. It has the ears to hear the sighs and sorrows of men. That is what love looks like. – Saint Augustine
Let no one weep for me, or celebrate my funeral with mourning; for I still live, as I pass to and fro through the mouths of men. – Quintus Ennius
All sympathy not consistent with acknowledged virtue is but disguised selfishness. – Samuel Taylor Coleridge
This sympathy is not translated into force against the British government because it is not like the anti- apartheid movement which had a high profile here and Mandela is a more engaging figure than Yasser Arafat. – Tom Paulin
Ultimately, knowing God and reading the Word, it helps with patience with people, understanding, empathy and sympathy that they might not have that I have. If God gave it to me, why not exercise it? – Trai Byers
I’m not going to give a courtesy gift to a person who’s going to win, and I’m not going to give a sympathy gift to a person who’s going to lose. – Tim Kaine
I didn’t go to university. Didn’t even finish A-levels. But I have sympathy for those who did. – Terry Pratchett
He bit his lip in a manner which immediately awakened my maternal sympathy, and I helped him bite it. – S. J. Perelman
Here bring your wounded hearts, here tell your anguish; Earth has no sorrow that Heaven cannot heal. – Thomas Moore
When you’ve been raised in care, rap music isn’t just about guns and sexism. They’re talking about real things you can hang on to, problems of identity that you have sympathy with. It’s not just about the music, with rap: when I was in care, it meant a whole lot more than that. – Samantha Morton
This circus that’s advertised to show and furnish a little amusement for us heathens is owned by a woman, one whose pluck catches my sympathy every time. – Wild Bill Hickok
NFL fans have less sympathy for fallen players than the Romans had for blind Christians. – Stephen Rodrick
It’s important to find characters that share sympathy with a young audience, not just in the story but their role in the world. – Tim Crouch
I don’t really distinguish between sympathy and honesty when I’m writing. The two go together – I’m interested in inhabiting my characters, seeing the world through their eyes. – Tom Perrotta
