Getting to know you

All good writers know the importance of creating believable, realistic characters that the reader CARES ABOUT.

That's the key phrase: CARES ABOUT.

I was reading one of my 438 books about writing (something one does in lieu of writing), and came across this from Stein on Writing by Sol Stein:

I am convinced that we need to know the people in the car before we see the car crash.

In other words, we need to know the characters (and like them) in order to care about them.