He compared the building of the Amazon jungle dam with the struggles of the native people of the fictional planet Pandora from his 3-D blockbuster.

FORBES: Brazil's "Pandora Dam" Gets Final Portion of Bridge Loan

Lake Woebegone may be fictional but the tendency of people to overestimate their own positive qualities and abilities and to underestimate their negative ones is real.

FORBES: Lake Woebegone Effect

The news sparked angry reactions from people hearing that the kind of fictional mistakes common to TV had intruded on real life.

CNN: Tiny Margin for Error

Sheen - who plays fictional US president Jed Bartlet in the television series The West Wing - wants people to deluge Washington with emails, faxes and phone calls on 26 February.

BBC: Sheen leads 'virtual' Iraq protest

Set in a fictional Ainu village (the Ainu are the bearded, lighter-skinned indigenous people of Japan) the story revolves around The Order of Akane, a group of demon hunters tasked with ridding the village of demons.

FORBES: Connect

Not satisfied with piratey puns or bad jokes about the "poopdeck, " these people express themselves through cosplay -- the fan-centric practice of dressing up as fictional characters -- and take great pride in their imaginative creations.

CNN: Real pirates don't say 'Aaaarrrr'

Aren't the fictional characters of great writing-- Hamlet, Raskolnikov, Emma Bovary--at least as compelling as real people?

FORBES: Magazine Article

They've created a fictional family, called the Mudds, for DaimlerChrylser 's (nyse: DCX - news - people ) Jeep brand, with their own webisodes, screensavers and text messages.

FORBES: Son Of TED