Where Do Characters Come From?

Yann Martel, author of Life Of Pi, never bases his characters on real people—they’re always a vehicle for something he wants to express.

Question:Where do your characters come from?

Yann Martel: I don’t dwell on character, honestly, they’re vehicles. I think of… it’s funny, I’m stumped when I ask that, because, you know, I think more of plot, setting, theme, and from all those, somehow the characters arise. So my characters are never based on real characters, for example, they are always a...