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" 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
Life
Eye
Blur
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" Very often in Chekhov, where he exhibits a little bit of human behavior that you recognize as true, you give a little laugh. It's like a reflex. "
Tom Stoppard
Human
Laugh
Like
" That I have the right to express myself freely at all times in all circumstances entails the idea that free speech is a 'basic human right' possessed by each individual, and, as such, trumps the interests of the society or group, including my neighbour. "
Tom Stoppard
Society
Myself
Free
" I actually went to an Oasis concert. I thought they were a brilliant songwriting band. "
Tom Stoppard
Band
Concert
Songwriting
" One doesn't want one's democracy to behave like a dictatorial or fascistic police. One doesn't. "
Tom Stoppard
Police
Behave
Democracy
" 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
Leave
Diary
Away
" I cannot say that I write with any social objective. One writes because one loves writing, really. "
Tom Stoppard
Because
Say
Social
" When you write, it's making a certain kind of music in your head. There's a rhythm to it, a pulse, and on the whole, I'm writing to that drum rather than the psychological process. "
Tom Stoppard
Kind
You
Writing
" Maturity is a high price to pay for growing up. "
Tom Stoppard
Growing Up
Growing
Maturity
" Revolution is a trivial shift in the emphasis of suffering. "
Tom Stoppard
Trivial
Suffering
Shift
" In Chekhov, everything blends into its opposite, just fractionally, and this is sort of unsettling. And that's why you end up 100 years later asking, 'Is that moment tragic or comic?' "
Tom Stoppard
End
You
Everything
" I really just like to be at a desk. "
Tom Stoppard
Like
Really
Just
" The way 'star' used to be reserved for a small number of people, and when the star category became so vast, they came up with 'superstar,' and then they came up with 'megastar.' "
Tom Stoppard
Way
Star
Small
" 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
Work
Art
Know
" I just happen to know quite a lot of what happened in Czechoslovakia between 1968 and the fall of Communism. "
Tom Stoppard
Lot
Communism
Fall
" I don't feel that I belong anywhere. Or rather, if there's a place I belong, I don't feel I'm there. "
Tom Stoppard
Anywhere
Rather
Place
" I write out of my intellectual experience. "
Tom Stoppard
Experience
Out
Write
" We give advice by the bucket, but take it by the grain. "
Tom Stoppard
Grain
Advice
Bucket
" Like almost everything else from the West, the Romantic Revolution arrived late in Russia. "
Tom Stoppard
Late
Everything
Romantic
" Childhood is Last Chance Gulch for happiness. After that, you know too much. "
Tom Stoppard
Know
You
Happiness
" My brain cells are dying in their trillions. "
Tom Stoppard
Cells
Dying
Brain Cells
" The fact is, I loved being English. I was very happy to be turned into an English schoolboy. "
Tom Stoppard
English
Very
Loved
" I like dialogue that is slightly more brittle than life. I have always admired and wished to write one of those 1940s film scripts where every line is written with a sharpness and economy that is frankly artificial. "
Tom Stoppard
More
Always
Economy
" I am good at being shown something and counterpunching. "
Tom Stoppard
Am
Good
Shown
" The bad end unhappily, the good unluckily. That is what tragedy means. "
Tom Stoppard
Means
Good
End
" My work always tried to unite the true with the beautiful; but when I had to choose one or the other, I usually chose the beautiful. "
Tom Stoppard
Choose
Always
True
" The idea that public safety, the safety of the innocent, is an absolute which trumps every other consideration, is tacitly abandoned in the way we live. "
Tom Stoppard
Live
Way
Safety
" I'm not like some other writers: I have no actual urgent need or desire to add to what's written. You write it; if you're lucky, it's performed, and that's the end of the whole thing. "
Tom Stoppard
Like
Desire
End
" 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
Play
Work
Place
" I write plays because writing dialogue is the only respectable way of contradicting yourself. I put a position, rebut it, refute the rebuttal, and rebut the refutation. "
Tom Stoppard
Dialogue
Way
Write
" 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
How
You
Dialogue