Tom Stoppard Quotes
To be an artist at all is like living in Switzerland during a world war. To be an artist in Zurich, in 1917, implies a degree of self-absorption that would have glazed over the eyes of Narcissus.
Quotes to Explore
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Sometimes you just wonder whether people just don't have the sensitivity or decency. I'm a member of the media myself: I host a talk show. I know sometimes when you want to ask something, you can circumvent it with words and vocabulary. You don't suddenly just go out there and ask something directly in the pretense of being absolutely candid.
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When history is erased, people's moral values are also erased.
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Tell me what you'd like to hear me sing. I'll sing whatever you like, after which I'll take up a collection, if you don't mind.
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It's my private life, and it's not up for grabs.
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People are entitled to the presumption of innocence.
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Every director bites the hand that lays the golden egg.
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Whenever you do a new interpretation of a great, previous text of any kind, you always look for some kind of immediate significance right now.
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Being at the Apollo, I was always starstruck.
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Life is a canvas of many strokes where shades from different palettes meet into a picture so concrete that some forget it is their own, so become framed themselves.
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I've had completely gray hair since, like, 30.
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I believe in only one thing: liberty; but I do not believe in liberty enough to want to force it upon anyone.
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If I could gain 1,000 pounds and be healthy, I would love to do that.
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I am prepared to oppose a Jim Crow army till I rot in jail.
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In a repressed society, artists fulfil a sense of harking back to instant gratification, or immediate expression, by doing things that function on the edge of society, or outside of what is conventionally accepted.
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Without understanding yourself, what is the use of trying to understand the world?
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Any frequent visitor to Hawaii is fixated on mapping how the islands have changed since their last visit.
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Whether you're keeping a journal or writing as a meditation, it's the same thing. What's important is you're having a relationship with your mind.
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For the doubters out there, of course I was going to have help from Penguin's editorial team in telling my story, which I talked about from the beginning.
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I'm not the type to get ulcers. I give them.
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I've had so many little ideas I've written down here and there. Some ideas I've got reams of notes for.
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Most of the time you don't even know they're there. Now, that's the scary thing. It's really strange and invading, but I'm still working it all out. I try to not let it bother me. And if I want to swim naked in my pool, I'm still going to do it. I certainly don't want to feel that I have to change everything in my life that I do to cater to them. I just won't let it happen.
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I adore the classical pieces of our culture. The Greek and Roman are still inside and everywhere; it's impossible to disconnect.
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When you get as old as I am, you kind of believe there's nothing new under the sun, but there's always a fresh way of looking at something. That's why I love working with young people. They remind you of things you used to know and have since forgotten.
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To be an artist at all is like living in Switzerland during a world war. To be an artist in Zurich, in 1917, implies a degree of self-absorption that would have glazed over the eyes of Narcissus.
