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using real life quotes

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  • 15-11-2016 4:13am
    #1
    Bob Z
    Registered Users Posts: 2,587 ✭✭✭


    can i use real life quotes from real life people and give them to fictional characters?
    or will people think im stealing?


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    #2
    Clampdown
    Closed Accounts Posts: 423 ✭✭Clampdown


    Bob Z wrote: »
    can i use real life quotes from real life people and give them to fictional characters?
    or will people think im stealing?

    Are you talking about dialogue you have heard in real life? Of course you can.


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    #3
    Bob Z
    Registered Users Posts: 2,587 ✭✭✭Bob Z


    Clampdown wrote: »
    Are you talking about dialogue you have heard in real life? Of course you can.


    no its exact quotes from historical figures. i like the idea of people spotting this would people think im stealing them?


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    #4
    Peregrinus
    Registered Users Posts: 26,070 ✭✭✭✭Peregrinus


    They might. But, then, you would be stealing them, wouldn't you?


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    #5
    Bob Z
    Registered Users Posts: 2,587 ✭✭✭Bob Z


    Peregrinus wrote: »
    They might. But, then, you would be stealing them, wouldn't you?

    It's a play set 100 years ago I could easily reword stuff but I was thinking of doing it as a reference to real life characters


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    #6
    Peregrinus
    Registered Users Posts: 26,070 ✭✭✭✭Peregrinus


    There's no law against taking phrases known to have been uttered by historical characters and putting them in the mouths of your fictional characters. (Unless you're appropriating chunks from written works which are still in copyright, of course. But let's assume you're not.)

    Your readership will be divided between:

    (a) those who don't spot that you're doing this;

    (b) those who spot it, and think you're being lazy; and

    (c) those who spot it, and think you're being clever or ironic.

    The more arch and knowing your use of other people's words is, the more your readers will understand that your allusion to Montesquieu or Voltaire or Goethe or whoever it is is deliberate, and intended to be noticed. But there's always be a section of your readers who think you are just trying to pass off other people's wisdom as your own.


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    #7
    Das Kitty
    Moderators, Arts Moderators Posts: 17,231 Mod ✭✭✭✭Das Kitty


    Is the idea to use it as a motif?

    Personally, if there's a quote or a thought that I really like, I try to deconstruct what it is about it, find what it would mean to a character and rework it to their point of view.

    If it's that you think you couldn't put it better yourself, then you're more than likely right (I know I can't), but don't let it put you off finding your own, or your character's own way of expressing it.

    But if it's a motif, all good.


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    #8
    Bob Z
    Registered Users Posts: 2,587 ✭✭✭Bob Z


    the play is set 100 years ago during the rising i already put it one quoye and it workedbut i would be putting in quotes by the likes of tom barry and the rahillym more as homage/tribute rather than as a steal


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    #9
    Clampdown
    Closed Accounts Posts: 423 ✭✭Clampdown


    My opinion in this case would be to use them very sparingly if they're well known quotes, but tbh outside of Ireland I don't think anyone would know any quotes about the rising really.

    I think if well known quotes are used throughout it would seem too much like a school play, like when I was a kid, we watched one about Abraham Lincoln where you had a scene where he says, 'I cannot tell a lie', and later, the 'four score and twenty years ago'.

    It's not the 'stealing' aspect I would have trouble with, it's that the audience might be confused as to the intention of the story. If you're doing a re-imagining of historical figures, I would let it be just that, a re-imagining. If you mix historically accurate quotes with stuff you made up, you're in a way making it seem like the stuff you made up is also historically accurate, whereas if you make it all up yourself you can be upfront that you're not trying to be historically accurate with the dialogue and not be accused of putting words in the mouths of deceased heroes.

    Of course, you can mix historically accurate quotes with imagined ones. A film like Malcolm X would be an example where they use plenty of things he was known to have said but I'm sure some made up ones as well. But they would have done a huge amount of research to make it mostly quite accurate.

    IMO I think it's more interesting to have them speak mostly without historical quotes, maybe just use a good one at a key moment. Unless the play is intended to be a historically accurate re-enactment, it would be more interesting to give the characters new life with your own original dialogue based on what you think the character would say.


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    #10
    Das Kitty
    Moderators, Arts Moderators Posts: 17,231 Mod ✭✭✭✭Das Kitty


    Bob Z wrote: »
    the play is set 100 years ago during the rising i already put it one quoye and it workedbut i would be putting in quotes by the likes of tom barry and the rahillym more as homage/tribute rather than as a steal

    I don't think you'll have a problem. Sounds really interesting.


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