Tom Stoppard Quotes
Quotes to Explore
-
Writing is like a contact sport, like football. You can get hurt, but you enjoy it.
-
Building codes are a good thing. People who throw rocks at inspectors are being naive. It's a lot like police officers; we want them around unless they stop us for a ticket. It's the same with inspectors.
-
By patting somebody on the back, a boy or a girl, a professional dancer, male, female, it really makes people feel good and I know it certainly made me feel good.
-
I came up in the theater, and I learned pretty quickly that reading a review, whether it's good or bad, can strangely affect the next performances, because you're reacting to something that's been said about you. So I tend to avoid that stuff pretty studiously.
-
I am just doing photo shoots. It's not something that extraordinary. I'm not a great artist, I'm not writing books, I'm not a painter, and people in the streets ask me for a picture or a note, and I say, 'Why?'
-
I think that the idea that I'm writing for many more people than I ever imagined has created a certain general responsibility that is literary and political. There's even pride involved, in not wanting to fall short of what I did before.
-
I studied mass media and brand management and was looking to do an MBA. When an acting offer came by, I thought I'll do one film so that it would look good on my CV. Films happened one after another, in different industries. I'm so glad things turned out the way they did.
-
But I honestly don't read critics. My dad reads absolutely everything ever written about me. He calls me up to read ecstatic reviews, but I always insist that I can't hear them. If you give value to the good reviews, you have to give value to the criticism.
-
Julia Child wasn't afraid to have fun. She made fantastic food but knew how to have a good time and not be too stuck up about the kitchen space.
-
I listened to country music my whole life. I started writing music when I was a teenager. It all came out country.
-
When anybody goes to L.A. from London, there's always this slight sense of, 'What are you doing? Who do you think you are? It's never gonna happen.' It's the classic, good-natured British cynicism.
-
Sometimes, fear is good. Sometimes it's a good thing to have a little bit of a reality check.
-
The morning is always my best time of the day for writing because that's when my head is best.
-
I love being a mom. But there's a certain kind of tedium to your life when your kid is young. Writing allows you to wander when your kid is napping in a crib ten feet away. So that's the great joy of writing fiction for me.
-
Sport's always a good thing - it's healthy, and it takes your mind off other things.
-
Ninety per cent of how you learn is watching great people. When you are surrounded by good actors it lifts your performance.
-
A person who publishes a book willfully appears before the populace with his pants down. If it is a good book nothing can hurt him. If it is a bad book nothing can help him.
-
But I want to do good work, after this series.
-
History shows that great economic and social forces flow like a tide over communities only half conscious of that which is befalling them. Wise statesmen foresee what time is thus bringing, and try to shape institutions and mold men's thoughts and purposes in accordance with the change that is silently coming on. The unwise are those who bring nothing constructive to the process, and who greatly imperil the future of mankind by leaving great questions to be fought out between ignorant change on one hand and ignorant opposition to change on the other.
-
I own a mortgage company and a real estate company funded by the music. Florida is a kinda gold mine.
-
I'm happy to not know what I think about stuff; I'm happy to change my mind. But it's relatively recently that I've been able to apply that to feelings. I used to like to know what I felt. I didn't want those feelings to be complicated or muddled or clashing.
-
I had the desire to paint the figure without actually painting the figure.
-
No one has more trouble than the person who claims to have no trouble
-
Good things, when short, are twice as good.
