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" Chekhov directors and Chekhov actors love working on his plays because there seems to be no end to what you can find out about the micro-narrative when you're investigating a text. "
Tom Stoppard
Love
Working
You
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" I have a spasm of envy for the person that was killed by a falling bookcase, as long as it doesn't happen prematurely. "
Tom Stoppard
Falling
Long
Person
" 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 an attraction about writing about a period that's over and isn't going to change colour while you look at it. "
Tom Stoppard
Look
Know
Writing
" I think theater ought to be theatrical. "
Tom Stoppard
Ought
Think
Theater
" Any revival in which I am involved is liable to change. "
Tom Stoppard
Which
I Am
Change
" If an idea's worth having once, it's worth having twice. "
Tom Stoppard
Having
Worth
Twice
" Skill without imagination is craftsmanship and gives us many useful objects such as wickerwork picnic baskets. Imagination without skill gives us modern art. "
Tom Stoppard
Skill
Without
Picnic
" I like pop music. I consider rock 'n' roll to be a branch of pop music. "
Tom Stoppard
Pop
Music
Like
" I don't do interviews under false pretenses. "
Tom Stoppard
False
Pretenses
Interviews
" The whole thing about writing a play is that it's all about controlling the flow of information traveling from the stage to the audience. It's a stream of information, but you've got your hand on the tap, and you control in which order the audience receives it and with what emphasis, and how you hold it all together. "
Tom Stoppard
Control
Information
Writing
" I think I'm a difficult conventional writer. "
Tom Stoppard
I Think
Difficult
Think
" I think I enlist comedy to a serious purpose. "
Tom Stoppard
Think
Comedy
I Think
" I'm aware of my old plays and occasionally think about them, but I'm much more anxious about finding the next play. "
Tom Stoppard
Old
Think
Next
" One senses that all the Bolsheviks, even those who ended up as cold-blooded autocrats, had been on a journey from idealism to something else, and didn't notice - to mix periods - when the Rubicon was crossed. "
Tom Stoppard
Senses
Something
Up
" Get me inside any boardroom and I'll get any decision I want. "
Tom Stoppard
Decision
Get
Me
" When 'The Dark Side of the Moon' was a new album in 1973, a friend of mine walked into my room where I was working with a copy in his hand and said, 'You really have to do a play about this album.' "
Tom Stoppard
Friend
You
Play
" A 'human right' is, by definition, timeless. It cannot adhere to some societies and not others, at some times and not at other times. "
Tom Stoppard
Right
Some
Human
" I wish I could remember how to write a play. I can't remember how they happened. "
Tom Stoppard
Write
Remember
Play
" Possibly because I did start off as a journalist, my starting point has always been that you've got to keep an audience with you. Whatever you're doing, you always want a script to be a page-turner. It's very important never, ever, to feel above that. "
Tom Stoppard
Important
Start
Doing
" The fact is, I loved being English. I was very happy to be turned into an English schoolboy. "
Tom Stoppard
English
Very
Loved
" The thing about talking about human rights is that when one bears in mind the sharp end of it, one does not want to worry too much about semantics. "
Tom Stoppard
Mind
Worry
Too Much
" If I wanted to change the world, the last thing I would do is write a play. "
Tom Stoppard
Play
Change
Change The World
" 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
Turtle
Now
Matters
" James Joyce - an essentially private man who wished his total indifference to public notice to be universally recognized. "
Tom Stoppard
Recognized
Public
Man
" 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
" Responsibilities gravitate to the person who can shoulder them. "
Tom Stoppard
Responsibilities
Who
Person
" The whole philosophy of modern times is to dissolve distinctions between individuals and deal with them as large collections of people. It's essentially self-interested on the part of authority. "
Tom Stoppard
Authority
Philosophy
Modern
" I'm attracted to the past. "
Tom Stoppard
Past
Attracted
" I don't find it easy to think of good stuff to write about. "
Tom Stoppard
Find
Write
Think
" I can be affectionate about a lot of things without watching them. "
Tom Stoppard
Watching
Lot
Things
" I'm not a theoretician about playwriting, but I have a strong sense that plays have to be pitched - the scene, the line, the word - at the exact point where the audience has just the right amount of information. It's like Occam's razor. "
Tom Stoppard
Information
Audience
Right