Quotations and Literature Forum

why would a quote be attributed to an actor? Example, in the 'Happiness' index:

When you relinquish the desire to control your future, you can have more happiness.
Nicole Kidman, in The Scotsman

(I'm pretty sure this is a bastardization of a Clemens quote- but I digress)

Why would an actor in a movie be given the attribution instead of the actual author of the line?

It's like if I went to a poetry reading and said that the poet was "Sony" because that was the audio system through which the poet was heard…

actors are only the means by which the line is conveyed, not the originators

A quotation from a movie (etc.) should be attributed to the original author that penned it. Further details can include (in fact, should include) the movie (or whatever), character, and actor playing the character.

In this case, there is no movie called "The Scotsman" that I can find, so I can only assume that this Kidman quote is from the newspaper "The Scotsman"
http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/

Maybe mgm can clear this up.