Art cannot be subordinate to its subject, otherwise it is not art but biography. Tom Stoppard More Quotes by Tom Stoppard More Quotes From Tom Stoppard 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. Tom Stoppard writingchildrenthinking In the theater there is often a tension, almost a contradiction, between the way real people would think and behave, and a kind of imposed dramaticness. Tom Stoppard realpeoplethinking 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 coinsmeanpeople I don't keep a diary and I throw away nearly all the paper I might have kept. I don't keep an archive. There's something worrying about my make-up that I try to leave no trace of myself apart from my plays. Tom Stoppard playworrytrying Happiness is equilibrium. Shift your weight. Tom Stoppard equilibriumweighthappiness It is a defect of God's humor that he directs our hearts everywhere but to those who have a right to them. Tom Stoppard defectsarcadiaheart Eternity's a terrible thought. I mean, where's it all going to end? Tom Stoppard humortimefunny Maturity is a high price to pay for growing up. Tom Stoppard growing-upmaturityinspirational A movie camera is like having someone you have a crush on watching you from afar - you pretend it's not there. Tom Stoppard crushmoviecameras The bad end unhappily, the good unluckily. That is what tragedy means. Tom Stoppard tragedywritingmean Comparing what we're looking for misses the point. It's wanting to know that makes us matter. Otherwise we're going out the way we came in. That's why you can't believe in the afterlife, Valentine. Believe in the after, by all means, but not the life. Believe in God, the soul, the spirit, the infinite, believe in angels if you like, but not in the great celestial get-together for an exchange of views. If the answers are in the back of the book I can wait, but what a drag. Better to struggle on knowing that failure is final. Tom Stoppard valentinestrugglebelieve The whole notion of journalism being an institution whose fundamental purpose is to educate and inform and even, one might say, elevate, has altered under commercial pressure, perhaps, into a different kind of purpose, which is to divert and distract and entertain. Tom Stoppard mediapressuremight Audiences know what to expect, and that is all that they are prepared to believe in. Tom Stoppard rosencrantz-and-guildensternaudiencebelieve If you carry your childhood with you, you never become older. Tom Stoppard creativitylifechildren Pirates could happen to anyone. Tom Stoppard piratehappens He says his aim is poetry. One does not aim at poetry with pistols. At poets, perhaps. Tom Stoppard pistolspoetdoe All mystical experience is coincidence; and vice versa, of course. Tom Stoppard coincidence-in-lifemystical-experiencesvices Childhood is Last Chance Gulch for happiness. After that, you know too much. Tom Stoppard childhoodlaststoo-much Never believe in mirrors or newspapers. Tom Stoppard mirrorswisebelieve Responsibilities gravitate to the person who can shoulder them. Tom Stoppard responsibilitymotivationalinspirational
