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Tom Stoppard Quotes
Tom Stoppard Quotes
Tom Stoppard
English
Dramatist
Born:
Jul 3
,
1937
Life
Me
People
Think
Writing
You
Related authors:
Aphra Behn
Christopher Marlowe
Harold Pinter
John Ciardi
John Heywood
Thomas Dekker
Thomas Holcroft
William Shakespeare
My intention still is to write a play to commemorate, possibly rather skeptically, the 50th anniversary of the Russian revolution. I started it at the beginning of 1966, but confronted with the enormous importance and reality of that revolution, I absolutely boggle. I don't know what to do about it.
Tom Stoppard
Reality
Beginning
Revolution
Enormous
Possibly
About
Russian
Rather
Absolutely
Write
Anniversary
Importance
Know
Still
Commemorate
Intention
Confronted
Play
Started
Success is a sort of metaphysical experience. I live exactly as I did before - only on a slightly bigger scale. Naturally, I won't be corrupted. I'll sit there in my Rolls, uncorrupted, and tell my chauffeur, uncorruptedly, where to go.
Tom Stoppard
Success
Experience
Before
Sit
Live
Slightly
Scale
Tell
Corrupted
Exactly
Only
Chauffeur
Sort
Metaphysical
Go
Did
Rolls
Where
Bigger
Success Is
Naturally
In Chekhov, everything blends into its opposite, just fractionally, and this is sort of unsettling. And that's why you end up 100 years later asking, 'Is that moment tragic or comic?'
Tom Stoppard
You
Everything
Later
100 Years
Unsettling
Blends
Sort
Chekhov
Comic
Opposite
Years
Tragic
End
Up
Just
Asking
Moment
Why
The idea of the state is, or should be, a very limited, prescribed idea. The state looks after the defense of the realm, and other matters - raising revenue to pay for things which are for all of us, and so on. That idea has turned turtle now. The state isn't any longer perceived as an institution which exists to serve us.
Tom Stoppard
Matters
Pay
Defense
Other
State
Perceived
Idea
Longer
Institution
Looks
Limited
Revenue
Exists
Very
Any
After
Which
Turned
Us
Realm
Should
Turtle
Now
Serve
Prescribed
Things
Raising
I have a spasm of envy for the person that was killed by a falling bookcase, as long as it doesn't happen prematurely.
Tom Stoppard
Envy
Long
Falling
Person
Happen
Prematurely
'Shakespeare in Love' was a particularly happy film.
Tom Stoppard
Love
Happy
Shakespeare
Particularly
Film
One feels that the past stays the way you left it, whereas the present is in constant movement; it's unstable all around you.
Tom Stoppard
You
Past
Way
Constant
All-Around
Stays
Unstable
Feels
Around
Left
Movement
Whereas
Present
When you write, it's making a certain kind of music in your head. There's a rhythm to it, a pulse, and on the whole, I'm writing to that drum rather than the psychological process.
Tom Stoppard
Music
You
Writing
Pulse
Kind
Rather
Write
Head
Drum
Making
Than
Psychological
Process
Rhythm
Certain
Your
Whole
Corporeal death is not the whole story.
Tom Stoppard
Death
Story
Whole
I cannot say that I write with any social objective. One writes because one loves writing, really.
Tom Stoppard
Writing
Say
I Write
Objective
Write
Writes
Because
Any
Cannot
Loves
Social
Really
I loved the Beatles when they turned up, and the Stones when they turned up, and never really stopped liking them.
Tom Stoppard
Beatles
Never
Liking
Up
Stones
Stopped
Loved
Them
Turned
Really
My life is sectioned off into hot flushes, pursuits of this or that.
Tom Stoppard
Life
My Life
Pursuits
Hot
Off
Even when the writing seems very frivolous, I'm puritanical. I don't mean my subject matter. It's that I'm almost pathologically incapable of leaving something when I'm not quite happy with it.
Tom Stoppard
Happy
Writing
Matter
Seems
Something
Puritanical
Almost
Leaving
Subject
Subject Matter
Very
Frivolous
Quite
Mean
Incapable
Even
Although I don't examine myself in this respect, I would say, off the top of my head, that I've come to acknowledge my Czechness more as I get older.
Tom Stoppard
Myself
Respect
Older
Top
Say
Would
Examine
More
Head
Come
Although
Off
Get
Acknowledge
Any revival in which I am involved is liable to change.
Tom Stoppard
Change
I Am
Liable
Involved
Am
Revival
Any
Which
I really just like to be at a desk.
Tom Stoppard
Like
Just
Really
Desk
Somebody who likes to do my plays is a good director for them.
Tom Stoppard
Good
Director
Somebody
Likes
Them
Who
Good Director
Plays
My scripts are possibly too talkative. Sometimes I watch a scene I've written, and occasionally I think, 'Oh, for God's sake, shut up.'
Tom Stoppard
God
Sometimes
Think
Too
I Think
Possibly
Scene
Written
Talkative
Occasionally
Sake
Up
Oh
Scripts
Shut
Shut Up
Watch
It takes a lot of effort to be vibrant.
Tom Stoppard
Takes
Lot
Effort
Vibrant
I proudly tell people, 'I have no computer,' so as not to be ashamed of having no computer.
Tom Stoppard
People
Tell
Having
Computer
Proudly
Ashamed
'Arcadia' is obviously a play that's got interesting things in it that are perhaps quite hard to grasp.
Tom Stoppard
Perhaps
Obviously
Got
Quite
Interesting
Interesting Things
Hard
Grasp
Play
Things
The possibilities are infinite with new writing; every time you open a new script, there's no limit to what it might contain.
Tom Stoppard
Time
You
Writing
Every
Every Time
Possibilities
No Limit
Open
Contain
New
Limit
Infinite
Script
Might
I'm vaguely embarrassed by myself sometimes.
Tom Stoppard
Myself
Sometimes
Embarrassed
Vaguely
If you let the plot be determined by what you feel is in the character's mind at that point, it may not turn out to be a very good play, but at least it will be a play where people are behaving in a kind of truthful way.
Tom Stoppard
Good
Character
You
People
Mind
Will
Way
Out
Plot
Kind
Determined
Point
Feel
Least
Very
Truthful
Behaving
May
Where
Turn
Play
The truth of the matter is that I used to be much more - as it were - shy. Now I don't care!
Tom Stoppard
Truth
Matter
Care
don't Care
More
Were
dont Care
Much
Used
Now
Shy
The whole excitement for writing anything is quite intense. And for a day or two, you think you've done everything extremely well. The problems start on the third day, and continues for the rest of your life.
Tom Stoppard
Life
Day
You
Writing
Problems
Rest
Think
Everything
Extremely
Excitement
Well
Intense
Done
Quite
Anything
Your
Whole
Start
Two
Third
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