> > I think it was Shakespeare who once said, "All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players, or actors." Well, if our lives are really a bunch of scripts, then who writes them?
> >
>
> More importantly, how come so many people's scripts have fatal errors in them?
>
> Speaking of stage and scripts, why do we so often attribute to Shakespeare lines that were said by his characters? Yes, he deserves credit for writing them, but is it fair to imply that he actually believed anything/everything any of his many mutually-antagonistic characters ever said?
>
> ^v^:)^v^
> F"assuming Shakespeare even wrote his own stuff"B

This is a pet peeve of mine. When quoting something said by a character in a work of fiction, I *always* cite the character with the title of the work. And I do this because when I am a famous and esteemed novelist, that's how I want to be quoted. God forbid all the words I put in my characters' mouths should be attributed to me!

This is closely related to another major irritant: people who identify closely with a particular character, especially with their worldview, and instantly make the assumption that the writer shares that worldview. They then make the writer into a champion or poster-figure for their cause. Their focus on the one aspect, or the one character, in the writer's work blinds them to everything else the writer has to say, including things that may counterbalance or even contradict their perspective.