I stole that line from the movie Buckaroo Bonzai and the Raiders from the Eighth Dimension, starring John Lithgow and Peter Weller. Lithgow's character, the villain, while making an escape, shakes his finger at Buckaroo and says that line about character. It's the smartest line of literary criticism I've ever heard. While things can be learned about what a character wears, where she might live, the car she drives, those sorts of thing are not newsworthy to me. Many minor characters and situations show up repeatedly in your stories.
Several characters are very fond of golf, too.
One can't help but question how fictitious these standbys are. Uncle Roy and the Red Creek Wranglers were Flannery O'Connor's favorite radio band. I learned that after reading her collected letters, and ever since, whenever I need a band to play in my stories, it's the Wranglers. If I need a place for them to play, it's either El Corral or The Hitchin' Post. I spent one summer living in Deming, New Mexico, with my best friend.