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 More Quotes by Tom Stoppard More Quotes From Tom Stoppard It is better of course to know useless things than to know nothing. Tom Stoppard useless-things philosophical knowledge Information is light. Information in itself, about anything, is light. Tom Stoppard information vision light It's not the voting that's democracy; it's the counting. Tom Stoppard democracies-have fake-people freedom All your life you live so close to truth, it becomes a permanent blur in the corner of your eye, and when something nudges it into outline it is like being ambushed by a grotesque. Tom Stoppard nudge existentialism eye The truth is always a compound of two half- truths, and you never reach it, because there is always something more to say. Tom Stoppard truth-is half two The idea that all the people locked up in mental hospitals are sane while all the people walking about are mad is merely a literary cliche, put about by people who should be locked up. I assure you there is not much in it. Taken as a whole, the sane are out there the sick are in here. For example you are in here because you have delusions that sane people are put in mental hospitals. Tom Stoppard taken people ideas In January 1962, when I was the author of one and a half unperformed plays, I attended a student production of 'The Birthday Party' at the Victoria Rooms in Bristol. Just before it began, I realised that Harold Pinter was sitting in front of me. Tom Stoppard party play birthday I can put two and two together, you know. Do not think you are dealing with a man who has lost his grapes. Tom Stoppard work men thinking We're better at predicting events at the edge of the galaxy or inside the nucleus of an atom than whether it'll rain on auntie's garden party three Sundays from now. Tom Stoppard sunday party rain I read for interest and enjoyment, and when I cease to enjoy it I stop. Tom Stoppard enjoyment enjoy interest Let me get it straight. Your father was king. You were his only son. Your father dies. You are of age. Your uncle becomes king." "Yes." "Unorthodox. Tom Stoppard uncles kings father There is truth and falsehood in a comma. Tom Stoppard truth-and-falsehood falsehood truth Personally I am in favour of education but a university is not the place for it. Tom Stoppard university favour education A genuine love of learning is one of the two delinquencies which cause blindness and lead a young man to ruin. Tom Stoppard genuine-love education men Well, we'll know better next time. Tom Stoppard rosencrantz-and-guildenstern wells next I think that the present is worth attention, one shouldn't sacrifice it to future conceptions of, of this future or that future. Tom Stoppard sacrifice attention thinking I write out of my intellectual experience. Tom Stoppard intellectual writing Of all forms of fiction, autobiography is the most gratuitous. Tom Stoppard autobiography form fiction Left to themselves people are noble, generous, uncorrupted, they'd create a completely new kind of society if only people weren't so blind, stupid and selfish. Tom Stoppard selfish stupid people Fifty-five crystal spheres geared to God's crankshaft is my idea of a satisfying universe. I can't think of anything more trivial than quarks, quasars, big bangs and black holes. Tom Stoppard black ideas thinking
