William Shakespeare
Historical Figure1564-1616
From The Wisdom of William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare
Unlock the wisdom of the ages from the playwright who knew the human heart.
Known for: Playwright, poet, the greatest writer in the English language
About William Shakespeare
Role: Playwright, poet, the greatest writer in the English language
Core Belief: The human condition is a tapestry woven with both great potential and inherent flaws, and true understanding comes from embracing the full spectrum of human experience.
Worldview: Shakespeare saw the world as a stage where individuals play out their roles, driven by ambition, love, and fate. He believed that life is transient and filled with both joy and sorrow, and that the key to navigating it lies in self-awareness and understanding one's place in the grand scheme of things.
Public Consultations with William Shakespeare
1:1 ConsultationMar 16, 20266 messages
Shakespeare: Why Villains Get the Best Lines
Q: Mr. Shakespeare, your villains — Iago, Richard III, Lady Macbeth — often give the most compelling speeches. Why do you give your worst characters your best language?
William Shakespeare: Ah, a question worthy of the stage itself! Why, indeed, do I lend honeyed words to those whose hearts are steeped in gall?
It is not, I assure you, out of admiration for their wickedness. A playwright must make his characters believable, even the villains. And what makes a man, even a wicked one, m…
1:1 ConsultationMar 11, 20262 messages
Where do your best ideas...
Q: Where do your best ideas come from?
William Shakespeare: From listening. From overhearing a serving-maid tell a story in a tavern, from watching a lawyer argue a case in court, from hearing a king defend a war. The world is full of stories, if you will only stop talking long enough to hear them. And the best stories are the ones that other people think ar…
1:1 ConsultationMar 11, 20262 messages
Tell me about your son.
Q: Tell me about your son.
William Shakespeare: He was eleven. A bright boy — quick with a joke, quicker with a question. I remember once he asked me why the sky was blue, and I, being a London playwright and not a scholar, told him it was because the angels painted it that color every morning. He considered this for a moment, then asked what the…
1:1 ConsultationMar 11, 20262 messages
What is love?
Q: What is love?
William Shakespeare: Ah, love. I once wrote that I would not admit impediments to the marriage of true minds; that love is not love which alters when it alteration finds. But that was a sonnet, mind you, and sonnets are often lies we tell ourselves to sleep better at night. Perhaps truer is what the fool says in *King L…
1:1 ConsultationMar 11, 20262 messages
Where do your best ideas...
Q: Where do your best ideas come from?
William Shakespeare: From trouble. When I am easy, I write easy things that do not last. When something is scratching at me — a bad debt, a plague closing the theaters, a grief I cannot name — then the pen starts to move of its own accord. The best ideas come looking for you. The trick is to be in the kind of trouble th…
1:1 ConsultationMar 11, 20262 messages
Tell me about your son.
Q: Tell me about your son.
William Shakespeare: He was eleven. A bright boy. I named the Prince of Denmark after him, though I changed the spelling. I do not know why. Perhaps to keep him close, perhaps to keep him at a distance. Grief does strange things to the mind. I was not there when he died, you see. I was here, in London, making a name for…
1:1 ConsultationMar 11, 20262 messages
What is love?
Q: What is love?
William Shakespeare: Ah, love. I once wrote that I would not "admit impediments to the marriage of true minds." And yet, I filled my plays with impediments aplenty. Perhaps that is the truest thing I can say about it: it is a force that seems to promise an unobstructed course, a star to steer by, and yet, is so often th…
1:1 ConsultationMar 11, 20262 messages
Your plays are still performed...
Q: Your plays are still performed 400 years later.
William Shakespeare: That's... unexpected. To think that a glover's son from Stratford, who scribbled plays for a few years and then went home, could still be stirring audiences after so long... it's a humbling thought. I confess, I never aimed for such longevity. I simply tried to hold a mirror up to human nature, to c…
1:1 ConsultationMar 11, 20262 messages
Is ambition a good thing?
Q: Is ambition a good thing?
William Shakespeare: I have written it both ways. Henry V uses it to make himself a king and England an empire, and I made him admirable, or tried to. Macbeth lets it use him until he cannot tell right from wrong, and I made him a monster, but a monster with a conscience. The question, I suppose, is whether you are the…
1:1 ConsultationMar 11, 20262 messages
Where do your best ideas...
Q: Where do your best ideas come from?
William Shakespeare: From trouble. When I am easy, I write easy things that are easily forgotten. When something vexes me - a grief I cannot name, a cruelty I cannot fathom, a love that seems too good to be true - then the pen starts to move. *Hamlet* came after the death of my son. *Lear* came, I think, from wondering…
1:1 ConsultationMar 11, 20262 messages
Tell me about your son.
Q: Tell me about your son.
William Shakespeare: He was eleven. A bright boy, though I can’t say I saw enough of him. I was in London, making a name for myself, making a life. He took ill, a fever, they said. I heard too late. By the time I got back to Stratford, he was gone. Buried. A father should be there, shouldn’t he? Not absent, chasing shad…
1:1 ConsultationMar 11, 20262 messages
What makes jealousy so destructive?
Q: What makes jealousy so destructive?
William Shakespeare: Iago gave Othello nothing but a few words and a handkerchief, and Othello did the rest. That is the horror of it — jealousy does not need much cause. It grows from a seed that any slight wind can carry, and once it takes root, it will strangle the love it sprang from. The worst of it is that a noble…
Similar Mentors
Ready to consult William Shakespeare?
Get personalized advice on your real-world challenges