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" You end up going to school plays quite a bit as a parent, there are a lot of kids who are doing the job as well as they can, but there's always one or two who seem much more at home in the world of impersonation. "

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" The idea that being human and having rights are equivalent - that rights are inherent - is unintelligible in a Darwinian world. "

Tom Stoppard

Human

Being Human

World

" I think journalism is important. "

" Why should I write a play? I don't have to write a play, do I? But somehow, I think that's what I'm here for, so I'd better do it. "

" I was an awful critic. I operated on the assumption that there was an absolute scale of values against which art could be measured. I didn't trust my own subjective responses. "

" If I wanted to change the world, the last thing I would do is write a play. "

" I've got no interest in educating or instructing people. "

" Life in a box is better than no life at all... I expect. "

" 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. "

" I am good at being shown something and counterpunching. "

Tom Stoppard

Good

Shown

" Theater in New York is nearer to the street. In London, you have to go deep into the building, usually, to reach the place where theater happens. On Broadway, only the fire doors separate you from the sidewalk, and you're lucky if the sound of a police car doesn't rip the envelope twice a night. "

" There are certain sorts of jokes which have only to do with the substitution of the unexpected word in a familiar context. If you translated something into French and then had it translated back into English by somebody who didn't know the original, you'd lose what was funny. "

" I'm hopeless at looking into myself and trying to see how things are working and why. "

" Because theatre is a story-telling art form, we feel entitled to assume that the playwright got there before we got there. "

" 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

Sitting

Birthday

" 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. "

" The whole excitement for writing anything is quite intense. And for a day or two, you think you've done everything extremely well. The problems start on the third day, and continues for the rest of your life. "

" If I see an actor in a role that is really terrifying, no matter how many times I meet him socially, I'm still frightened of him. I think he's going to hit me. "

Tom Stoppard

Matter

Meet

" If an idea's worth having once, it's worth having twice. "

" It is better to be quotable than to be honest. "

" 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. "

" I think I'm a difficult conventional writer. "

" I don't believe that we evolved moral psychology; it just doesn't seem plausible to me as a biological phenomenon. "

" I was delighted to not go to university. I couldn't wait to be out of education. "

Tom Stoppard

Wait

Education

" I don't believe there is something called 'film' and something called 'theater,' and that words belong in the theater. Some rather bad films have few words in them; some good films have a lot of words in them. "

" The media. It sounds like a convention of spiritualists. "

" I don't draw on my inner life in my work. "

" I am aware, as everybody has to be, that there's more competition for one's attention nowadays. "

Tom Stoppard

Attention

Competition

" Embarrassingly enough, I often can't remember how I came to write something. "

" I still believe that if your aim is to change the world, journalism is a more immediate short-term weapon. "

" From as long as, literally as far back as I can remember I've liked puns, word jokes, I can literally recall looking at a comic at the age of six or seven and I remember what I enjoyed and what it was precisely and how the joke worked. "