I read for interest and enjoyment, and when I cease to enjoy it I stop. — Tom Stoppard Copy Share Image
A publisher many years ago asked if I'd like to write a novel for £50. And I said, 'Absolutely.' — Tom Stoppard Copy Share Image
Chekhov understood that people are mysterious and can't be reduced to what we nowadays call 'motivation.' — Tom Stoppard Copy Share Image
Rewriting isn't just about dialogue; it's the order of the scenes, how you finish a scene, how you get into a scene. — Tom Stoppard Copy Share Image
Embarrassingly enough, I often can't remember how I came to write something. — Tom Stoppard Copy Share Image
It's very common for people to recommend something to me because they're going on what I've already written, when, what really is… — Tom Stoppard Copy Share Image
Sometimes people are so close to the material, they miss an important cross-reference. You can't drop this line because half an hour… — Tom Stoppard Copy Share Image
If I am on a journey where I only have time to read one-and-a-half books, I never know which one-and-a-half I'll feel… — Tom Stoppard Copy Share Image
I never had any frustration about writing uncredited. I always felt that the satisfaction of doing it was in the doing of… — Tom Stoppard Copy Share Image
The whole excitement for writing anything is quite intense. And for a day or two, you think you've done everything extremely well.… — Tom Stoppard Copy Share Image
I don't want to come over as some boringly self-deprecating person. But I don't see myself as a groundbreaking writer in the… — Tom Stoppard Copy Share Image
It's really hard to talk about writing, and I'm usually conscious if I'm misleading people or misleading the questioner, because the problem… — Tom Stoppard Copy Share Image
People have quite a simple idea about 'Anna Karenina.' They feel that the novel is entirely about a young married woman who… — Tom Stoppard Copy Share Image
One of the nice things about the world of filmmaking is that you make friends in the business. Sometimes directors feel a… — Tom Stoppard Copy Share Image
“I have three copies of the first edition, which sold in double figures, speaking loosely; there was a moment when Blond's 'Lord… — Tom Stoppard Copy Share Image
I'm not like some other writers: I have no actual urgent need or desire to add to what's written. You write it;… — Tom Stoppard Copy Share Image
You always end up with too much, so it's good to be part of the conversation about not just what you can… — Tom Stoppard Copy Share Image
When I was in my teens, I was very, very keen on being the author of a book. What the book was… — Tom Stoppard Copy Share Image
I've never really worked out this thought, and I don't know if I'm really conscious of it, but I can see there's… — Tom Stoppard Copy Share Image
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… — 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
