I said the hell with Plot. I’m going to write stories about people that interest me, the way I see them. I’m sick of formula. I’m sick of Hero, Heroine, Heavy. … I’m sick of Characters. I’m going to write about men and women, all classes, types and conditions, within the limits of my own capabilities. People with faults, with nasty tempers, with weaknesses and loves and hates and fears and gripes against each other. People I can believe in because I know and understand them. People who aren’t like anybody else’s characters because they are themselves, like ‘em or don’t. … And all of a sudden I began to sell.
~ Leigh Brackett