Tom Stoppard Quotes

A collection of quotes by Tom Stoppard.

Tom Stoppard is a renowned British playwright and screenwriter, widely recognized for his clever and intellectually stimulating works. He was born TomÃ¡Å¡ Straussler on July 3, 1937, in ZlÃn, Czechoslovakia (now the Czech Republic). Stoppard and his family fled to Singapore in 1939 to escape the Nazi occupation, before eventually settling in England in 1946.

Stoppard attended the University of Bristol briefly before becoming a journalist. His first major success came in 1966 with the play "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead," a reimagining of Shakespeare's "Hamlet." This critically acclaimed work, filled with philosophical and existential themes, secured Stoppard's place in the theater world. He went on to write numerous influential plays, including "Arcadia," "The Real Thing," "Travesties," and "The Coast of Utopia."

In addition to his brilliance on stage, Stoppard has also made significant contributions to the film industry. He wrote screenplays for films such as "Brazil," "Shakespeare in Love," and "Anna Karenina," earning him an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay in 1999. Stoppard's unique ability to bridge serious subjects with humor and creativity has made him one of the most celebrated playwrights of the 20th and 21st centuries.

Tom Stoppard continues to write and his work remains popular in theaters worldwide. His extraordinary talent for blending wit, intellectuality, and depth continues to captivate audiences and inspire fellow playwrights.

Maturity is a high price to pay for growing up.

Maturity is a high price to pay for growing up.

Every exit is an entry somewhere else.

Every exit is an entry somewhere else.

It's not the voting that's democracy, it's the counting.

It's not the voting that's democracy, it's the counting.

Age is a high price to pay for maturity.

Age is a high price to pay for maturity.

I know the British press is very attached to the lobby syste

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.

GUIL: A scientific approach to the examination of phenomena

GUIL: A scientific approach to the examination of phenomena is a defence against the pure emotion of fear

Life in a box is better than no life at all ... I expect.

Life in a box is better than no life at all ... I expect.

Life Death Hope Mortality Eternity

It is a defect of God's humor that he directs our hearts eve

It is a defect of God's humor that he directs our hearts everywhere but to those who have a right to them.

Love Lady Croom

I don't think writers are sacred, but words are. They deserv

I don't think writers are sacred, but words are. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones in the right order, you might nudge the world a little or make a poem that children will speak for you when you are dead.

Life is a gamble, at terrible odds - if it was a bet you wou

Life is a gamble, at terrible odds - if it was a bet you wouldn't take it.

GUIL (quietly): Where we went wrong was getting on a boat. W

GUIL (quietly): Where we went wrong was getting on a boat. We can move, of course, change direction, rattle about, but our movement is contained within a larger one that carries us along as inexorably as the wind and current

Life Inspirational Metaphor

The truth is always a compound of two half-truths, and you n

The truth is always a compound of two half-truths, and you never reach it, because there is always something more to say

Well I believe in the desirability of an optimal society.

Well I believe in the desirability of an optimal society.

Back in the East you can't do much without the right papers,

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.

The House of Lords, an illusion to which I have never been a

The House of Lords, an illusion to which I have never been able to subscribe - responsibility without power, the prerogative of the eunuch throughout the ages.

I think age is a very high price to pay for maturity.

I think age is a very high price to pay for maturity.

We cross our bridges when we come to them and burn them behi

We cross our bridges when we come to them and burn them behind us, with nothing to show for our progress except a memory of the smell of smoke, and a presumption that once our eyes watered.

I like pop music. I consider rock 'n' roll to be a branch of

I like pop music. I consider rock 'n' roll to be a branch of pop music.

I think that the present is worth attention, one shouldn't s

I think that the present is worth attention, one shouldn't sacrifice it to future conceptions of, of this future or that future.

I was interested by the idea that artists working in a total

I was interested by the idea that artists working in a totalitarian dictatorship or tsarist autocracy are secretly and slightly shamefully envied by artists who work in freedom. They have the gratification of intense interest: the authorities want to put them in jail, while there are younger readers for whom what they write is pure oxygen.