“Quite possibly one of the most revealing passages about Shakespeare as a man comes from one of the roughest of the jottings made by gossip John Aubrey from his interview with William Beeston, son of the Christopher Beeston who had acted with Shakespeare's company. The partly cancelled note reads: 'the more to be admired, he was not a company keeper. [He] ... wouldn't be debauched, and if invited to, writ [i.e. wrote] he was in pain.' [Ch.24]”

“Only one man had the circumstances and gifts to give us such incomparable works, and William Shakespeare of Stratfrod was unquestionably that man -- whoever he was.”

“Totus mundus agit histrionem. (All the World's a Stage.)"[Motto of William Shakespeare's Globe Theatre (f. 1599) and its acting company, The King's Men; taken from the first play to be performed on the new stage.]”

“All men who repeat a line from Shakespeare are William Shakespeare”

“William Shakespeare. She knew him. They were,the three of them-Lucinda,Daniel,and Shakespeare-friends. There had been a summer afternoon when Daniel had taken Lucinda to visit Shakespeare at his home in Stratford. Toward sunset,they'd sat in the library,and while Daniel worked on his sketches at the window, Will had asked her question after question-all the while taking furious notes-about when she'd first met Daniel, how she felt about him, whether she thought she could one day fall in love.Aside from Daniel,Shakespeare was the only one who knew the secret of Lucinda's indentity-her gender-and the love the players shared offstage. In exchange for his discretion,Lucinda was keeping the secret that Shakespeare was present that night at the Globe. Everyone else in the company assumed that he was in Stratford, that he'd handed over the reins of the theater to Master Fletcher.Instead,Will appeared incognito to see the play's opening night.When she returned to his side,Shakespeare gazed deep into Lucinda's eyes. "You've changed.""I-no,I'm still"-she felt the soft brocade around her shoulders. "Yes, I found the cloak.""The cloak,is it?" He smiled at her, winked. "It suits you.”

“The desire to lift, the willingness to help, and the graciousness to give come from a heart filled with love. The poet wrote, ‘Love is the most noble attribute of the human soul.’ And William Shakespeare cautioned, ‘They do not love who do not show their love’ (Two Gentlemen of Verona, act 1, sc. 2, line 31).”