I've lost all capacity for disbelief. I'm not sure that I could even rise to a little gentle scepticism. Tom Stoppard More Quotes by Tom Stoppard More Quotes From Tom Stoppard The idea of the state is, or should be, a very limited, prescribed idea. The state looks after the defense of the realm, and other matters - raising revenue to pay for things which are for all of us, and so on. That idea has turned turtle now. The state isn't any longer perceived as an institution which exists to serve us. Tom Stoppard turtlesdefenseideas 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. Tom Stoppard responsibilityagehouse It was a different planet in 1967, the Broadway theatre. It had a little ashtray clamped to the back of every seat and the author got 10% of the gross. Tom Stoppard broadway-theatredifferentlittles If the audience is made to do not enough work, they resent it without knowing it. Too much and they get lost. There's a perfect pace to be found. And a perfect place that is different for every line of the play. Tom Stoppard knowingperfectplay For a long time I managed to think two things simultaneously, that I am actually a good playwright, and that the next time I write a play I will be revealed as someone who is no good at all. Tom Stoppard playwritingthinking As a playwright, you can cover a lot of waterfront without being able to hold your own against an expert in any of those areas. I have no illusions about that. Tom Stoppard illusionableexperts I never had any frustration about writing uncredited. I always felt that the satisfaction of doing it was in the doing of it, really, and getting recognised by the small number of people that know what you did. Tom Stoppard small-numbersfrustrationwriting You can't but know that if you can capture the emotions of the audience as well as their minds, the play will work better, because it's a narrative art form. Tom Stoppard mindplayart Traitors hoist by their own petard?--or victims of the gods?--we shall never know! Tom Stoppard traitorvictimknows Obviously, you would give your life for your children, or give them the last biscuit on the plate. But to me, the trick in life is to take that sense of generosity between kin, make it apply to the extended family and to your neighbour, your village and beyond. Tom Stoppard generositygivingchildren And for the last three minutes on the wind of a windless day I have heard the sound of drums and flute. Tom Stoppard threesoundwind the natural condition is one of insurmountable obstacles on the road to imminent disaster. strangely enough it all works out in the end... it's a mystery. Tom Stoppard obstaclesmysterywork-out There must have been a moment, at the beginning, were we could have said -- no. But somehow we missed it. Tom Stoppard rosencrantz-and-guildensternmomentssaid I shall have poetry in my life. And adventure. And love, love, love, above all. Love as there has never been in a play. Unbiddable, ungovernable, like a riot in the heart and nothing to be done, come ruin or rapture. Tom Stoppard playheartadventure The ordinary-sized stuff which is our lives, the things people write poetry about—clouds—daffodils—waterfalls—what happens in a cup of coffee when the cream goes in—these things are full of mystery, as mysterious to us as the heavens were to the Greeks. Tom Stoppard coffeecloudswriting Real data is messy. ...It's all very noisy out there. Very hard to spot the tune. Like a piano in the next room, it's playing your song, but unfortunately it's out of whack, some of the strings are missing, and the pianist is tone deaf and drunk- I mean, the noise! Impossible! Tom Stoppard realsongmean Before Plato could describe love, the loved one had to be invented. We would never love anybody if we could see past our invention. Bosie is my creation, my poem. In the mirror of invention, love discovered itself. Tom Stoppard mirrorsplatopast We must be born with an intuition of mortality. Before we know the word for it. Before we know that there are words. Out we come, bloodied and squalling, with the knowledge that for all the points of the compass, there's only one direction. And time is its only measure. Tom Stoppard one-directioncompassintuition Carnal embrace is the practice of throwing one's arms around a side of beef. Tom Stoppard beefarmspractice Rosencrantz: Shouldn't we be doing something--constructive? Guildenstern: What did you have in mind? ... A short, blunt human pyramid...? Tom Stoppard bluntpyramidsmind
