So, I have sort of a question about quotes, and authors.
Once, in a debate with a friend, I brought out a 'quote' from Michael Crichton about something. I immediately got ripped into, because the quote was from one of his books (fiction) -- the character of the book has that opinion, (I was told), not Mr. Crichton himself! I realized he was right -- I was attributing to the author something said (an opinion) of the character in one of his books. So I've been careful about that.
Then last night on the radio, someone was giving an editorial, and to end their point, they said, "Our quote from the day comes from George Orwell -- 'All animals are equal; some are just more equal than others.'"
As you know, this is said by a character in his book Animal Farm. So is it right/not right to attribute to an author a quote that was made in one of their books? By doing so are we causing it to look like the author has the opinions ascribed to his/her characters?
Looking online I now see many other examples of where the "author" is attributed a quote, that is actually a line given by one of the characters in their books.