Pardon me while I strut and fret for a bit.

I'm not particularly verbose.  This has posed a problem on many occasions, when my lack of words has come across as unhappy, angry, or disapproving.  There are very few people to or around whom I really talk.  Because of this, I've always felt sort of off among the characters Shakespeare created, and having played a few, that's somewhat problematic.  Even Hamlet, who spends a lot of time by himself, seems to spend most of that time talking.  Even though there are characters I relate to, I can't imagine myself as a character.

At the same time, though, I understand why this is. These characters' entire existence is showing an episode of their lives to people, and in order to do that, they must speak.  They've got their hour upon the stage, two or three if it's a long one, and that's it.  In that time, they have to show us everything.  What they want, why they want it, how they're going to get it, and why we should care.  When the last line is spoken, they fade into nothingness, existing only in the imaginations of the audience and the actors who play them.

And yet these characters, existing only when they are observed, are everything.  They correlate nearly directly to real people and the archetypes those people inspire.   Everyone knows a Cassius, or a Lady Macbeth, or a Helena, or even a Bottom.  Both nothing and everything, created in the clay of a few thousand words, these characters tell the stories the only way they can.  By talking. 

Which brings me back to my original point.  I know for a fact that my vocabulary is nowhere near that of Shakespeare, and I don't speak nearly as often as his characters.  But that doesn't mean my words are any less powerful for their lack in number.  Much more important is the choosing of words, picking their perfect rhythm, finding the ways in which they fit together and click.  I like words, and I believe they like me too.  Even if they don't come out of my mouth that often.