Tom Stoppard Quotes - Page 8

Quotes about:

• Rosencrantz: We might as well be dead. Do you think death could possibly be a boat? Guildenstern: No, no, no... Death is...not. Death isn't. You take my meaning. Death is the ultimate negative. Not-being. You can't not-be on a boat. Rosencrantz: I've frequently not been on boats. Guildenstern: No, no, no--what you've been is not on boats.

  Tom Stoppard

  Thinking, Negative, Might

  7 Copy quote

• Whatever became of the moment when one first knew about death? There must have been one. A moment. In childhood. When it first occurred to you that you don’t go on forever. It must have been shattering, stamped into one’s memory. And yet, I can’t remember it.

  Tom Stoppard

  Memories, Forever, Childhood

  "Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead". www.imdb.com. 1990.

  7 Copy quote

• It's where we're nearest to our humanness. Useless knowledge for its own sake. Useful knowledge is good, too, but it's for the faint-hearted, an elaboration of the real thing, which is only to shine some light, it doesn't matter where on what, it's the light itself, against the darkness, it's what's left of God's purpose when you take away God.

  Tom Stoppard

  Real, Light, Shining

  Tom Stoppard (1998). “The Invention of Love”, p.71, Grove Press

  4 Copy quote

• You think human nature is a beast, that it must be put in a cage. But it's the cage that makes the animal bad.

  Tom Stoppard

  Animal, Thinking, Cages

  Tom Stoppard (2012). “Rock 'n' Roll”, p.112, Faber & Faber

  5 Copy quote

• I love love. I love having a lover and being one. The insularity of passion. I love it. I love the way it blurs the distinction between everyone who isn't one's lover.

  Tom Stoppard

  Passion, Way, Lovers

  Tom Stoppard (2014). “The Real Thing”, p.45, Faber & Faber

  4 Copy quote

• I should have the courage of my lack of convictions.

  Tom Stoppard

  Should Have, Conviction, Should

  Tom Stoppard, Paul Delaney (1994). “Tom Stoppard in Conversation”, p.126, University of Michigan Press

  5 Copy quote

• The universe is deterministic all right, just like Newton said, I mean it's trying to be, but the only thing going wrong is people fancying people who aren't supposed to be in that part of the plan.

  Tom Stoppard

  Mean, People, Trying

  Tom Stoppard (2013). “Arcadia”, p.94, Faber & Faber

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• I write plays because writing dialogue is the only respectable way of contradicting yourself. I put a position, rebut it, refute the rebuttal, and rebut the refutation.

  Tom Stoppard

  Writing, Play, Way

  Tom Stoppard, Paul Delaney (1994). “Tom Stoppard in Conversation”, p.31, University of Michigan Press

  8 Copy quote

• Carnal embrace is the practice of throwing one's arms around a side of beef.

  Tom Stoppard

  Practice, Beef, Arms

  Tom Stoppard (2013). “Arcadia”, p.8, Faber & Faber

  6 Copy quote

• For all the compasses in the world, there's only one direction, and time is its only measure.

  Tom Stoppard

  One Direction, World, Compass

  "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead". Book by Tom Stoppard, August 24, 1966.

  6 Copy quote

• I've seldom minded other people's opinions, but the other side of that coin is that I've seldom been interested by them, um their opinions about me I mean.

  Tom Stoppard

  Mean, People, Coins

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• The trouble is, I can't find a part of myself where you're not important. I write in order to be worth your while and to finance the way I want to live with you. Not the way you want to live. The way I want to live with you. Without you I wouldn't care. I'd eat tinned spaghetti and put on yesterday's clothes. But as it is I change my socks, and make money, and tart up Brodie's unspeakable drivel into speakable drivel so he can be an author too, like me.

  Tom Stoppard

  Life, Writing, Clothes

  "The Real Thing". Book by Tom Stoppard, November 16, 1982.

  5 Copy quote

• Beauty is desired in order that it may be befouled; not for its own sake, but for the joy brought by the certainty of profaning it.

  Tom Stoppard

  Beauty, Order, Joy

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• If rationality were the criterion for things being allowed to exist, the world would be one gigantic field of soya beans!

  Tom Stoppard

  Would Be, World, Fields

  Tom Stoppard (2013). “Jumpers”, p.26, Faber & Faber

  6 Copy quote

• I'm hopeless at looking into myself and trying to see how things are working and why.

  Tom Stoppard

  Trying, Hopeless

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• I consider myself to be a very fortunate person and to have led a very fortunate life.

  Tom Stoppard

  Fortunate Life, Persons, Fortunate

  4 Copy quote

• I know the British press is very attached to the lobby system. It lets the journalists and the politicians feel proud of their traditional freedoms while giving the reader as much of the truth as they think is good for him.

  Tom Stoppard

  Thinking, Giving, Proud

  "Fictional character: Mageeba". "Night and Day", 1978.

  4 Copy quote

• Obviously, you would give your life for your children, or give them the last biscuit on the plate. But to me, the trick in life is to take that sense of generosity between kin, make it apply to the extended family and to your neighbour, your village and beyond.

  Tom Stoppard

  Children, Generosity, Giving

  "Writer and fighter" by Tim Adams, www.theguardian.com. September 20, 2008.

  12 Copy quote

• You're familiar with the tragedies of antiquity, are you? The great homicidal classics?

  Tom Stoppard

  Art, Philosophy, History

  'Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead' (1967) act 1

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• A foreign correspondent is someone who lives in foreign parts and corresponds, usually in the form of essays containing no new facts. Otherwise he's someone who flies around from hotel to hotel and thinks that the most interesting thing about any story is the fact that he has arrived to cover it.

  Tom Stoppard

  Thinking, Interesting, Stories

  'Night and Day' (1978) act 1

  4 Copy quote

• Back in the East you can't do much without the right papers, but with the right papers you can do anything The believe in papers. Papers are power.

  Tom Stoppard

  Believe, East, Paper

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• Public postures have the configuration of private derangement.

  Tom Stoppard

  Posture, Configuration

  Tom Stoppard (2013). “Tom Stoppard Plays 5: The Real Thing; Night & Day; Hapgood; Indian Ink; Arcadia”, p.164, Faber & Faber

  4 Copy quote

• "The [London] Times" has published no rumours; it's only reported facts, namely that other, less responsible papers are publishing certain rumours.

  Tom Stoppard

  Art, Philosophy, History

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• There would be this algebraic equation with an equals sign in the middle, and all the components would have different letters of the alphabet. It would come out right with x+z^2+t/q=y+co, and the co would be clothes off!

  Tom Stoppard

  Science, Clothes, Different

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• War is capitalism with the gloves off.

  Tom Stoppard

  War, Gloves, Capitalism

  'Travesties' (1975) act 1

  5 Copy quote

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