Ten quotations about Shakespeare:
- "He was the man who of all modern, and perhaps ancient poets, had the largest and most comprehensive soul.… He was naturally learned; he needed not the spectacles of books to read nature; he looked inwards, and found her there." — John Dryden
- "In his tragic scenes there is always something wanting." — Samuel Johnson
- "After all, all he did was string together a lot of old, well-known quotations." — H. L. Mencken
- "If the public likes you, you're good. Shakespeare was a common down-to-earth writer in his day." — Mickey Spillane
- "I am more easily bored with Shakespeare and have suffered more ghastly evenings with him than with any other dramatist I know." — Peter Brook
- "Asking if Shakespeare wrote Shakespeare's works is about as real as asking, "Is Elvis dead?" — Gary Taylor
- "Interest in Shakespeare among teenagers the world over is so astounding that Shakespeare already forms a part of the global canon." — Alice Boyne, The English-Speaking Union
- "Shakespeare is a drunken savage with some imagination whose plays can please only in London and Canada." — Voltaire
- "What would we not give for a single personal letter, one page of a diary!" &mdash Sam Schoenbaum
- "I believe he was a genius." — Mel Gibson
I say, thank God we have Mel Gibson to give voice to opinions that might otherwise be overlooked.