If you don't know what is being said, the rest of the actor's work is wasted. — Tom Stoppard Copy Share Image
Writing a new play shouldn't be seen as a mystery belonging to a priesthood, but as a challenge, a technical challenge, just… — Tom Stoppard Copy Share Image
Why should I write a play? I don't have to write a play, do I? But somehow, I think that's what I'm… — Tom Stoppard Copy Share Image
On Broadway, only the fire doors separate you from the sidewalk and you're lucky if the sound of a police car doesn't… — Tom Stoppard Copy Share Image
Theater is a recreation. It can be much more, but unless it's recreation, I don't see the point of it. — Tom Stoppard Copy Share Image
Theatre is a series of insurmountable obstacles on the road to imminent disaster. — Tom Stoppard Copy Share Image
Because theatre is a story-telling art form, we feel entitled to assume that the playwright got there before we got there. — Tom Stoppard Copy Share Image
I'm so grateful to grab hold of something that wants to be a play. It doesn't happen very often. I don't have… — Tom Stoppard Copy Share Image
You are the plays you write. How on earth could you write them otherwise? They're projections of your own predilections. — Tom Stoppard Copy Share Image
I'm not a theoretician about playwriting, but I have a strong sense that plays have to be pitched - the scene, the… — Tom Stoppard Copy Share Image
Chekhov directors and Chekhov actors love working on his plays because there seems to be no end to what you can find… — Tom Stoppard Copy Share Image
If I see an actor in a role that is really terrifying, no matter how many times I meet him socially, I'm… — Tom Stoppard Copy Share Image
As a playwright, you can cover a lot of waterfront without being able to hold your own against an expert in any… — Tom Stoppard Copy Share Image
“After Magritte often serves as a companion piece to The Real Inspector Hound, which I think is appropriate in at least one… — Tom Stoppard Copy Share Image
I think theater ought to be theatrical ... you know, shuffling the pack in different ways so that it's -- there's always… — Tom Stoppard Copy Share Image
I feel that when I began writing, I had a need to know more about the play before I got into it.… — Tom Stoppard Copy Share Image
The whole thing about writing a play is that it's all about controlling the flow of information traveling from the stage to… — Tom Stoppard Copy Share Image
I get the impression sometimes that a play arrives in a sequence of events that I have no control over. — Tom Stoppard Copy Share Image
If I wanted to change the world, the last thing I would do is write a play. — Tom Stoppard Copy Share
If you want to change something by Tuesday, theater is no good. Journalism is what does that. But, if you want to just alter… — Tom Stoppard Copy Share
Childhood is Last Chance Gulch for happiness. After that, you know too much. — Tom Stoppard Copy Share
After all these years, I definitely associate having a pen in my hand with having an ashtray just out of eye line. — Tom Stoppard Copy Share
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… — Tom Stoppard Copy Share
For me, human rights simply endorse a view of life and a set of moral values that are perfectly clear to an eight-year-old child.… — Tom Stoppard Copy Share
“What is an artist? For every thousand people there's nine hundred doing the work, ninety doing well, nine doing good, and one lucky bastard… — Tom Stoppard Copy Share
Dying is not romantic, and death is not a game which will soon be over... Death is not anything... death is not... It's the… — Tom Stoppard Copy Share
For 10 years of my life, 3 times a day, I thanked the Lord for what I was about to receive and thanked him… — Tom Stoppard Copy Share
You should not translate for more than two hours at a time. After that, you lose your edge, the language becomes clumsy, rigid. — Tom Stoppard Copy Share
No matter how imperfect things are, if you've got a free press everything is correctable, and without it everything is concealable. — Tom Stoppard Copy Share
We must be born with an intuition of mortality. Before we know the word for it. Before we know that there are words. Out… — Tom Stoppard Copy Share
