Yet deeper than character, or even place, is another concept: voice. More than any other doorway to the imagination, I find this one the trickiest to open—and the hardest to close. For a character's true voice is heard, its tones, cadences, and ideas are long remembered. The ancients [people from ancient history] used anima, in fact, to describe breath as well as soul. That is wholly appropriate, for in the breath—the voice—of a character lies its essential spirit. If the writer can truly hear the voice of a character, so will the reader. What does the author explicitly say can be found in the voice of a character? Doorways Place Ancients Spirit