Tom Stoppard Quotes

Biography is the mesh through which real life escapes.

Tom Stoppard

• Life
• Real
• Biographies
• Mesh

• Previous
• Next

Quotes to Explore

• Let us go forward in this battle fortified by conviction that those who labour in the service of a great and good cause will never fail.

  

  Owen Arthur
  • Good
  • Great
  • Service

• I tested for a couple of pilots, but they said I was too tall.

  

  Adam Baldwin
  • Couple
  • Said
  • Pilots

• One ever feels his twoness - an American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body, whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder.

  

  W. E. B. Du Bois
  • American
  • Alone
  • Dark

• I would like to direct.

  

  Aaron Eckhart
  • Like
  • Would
  • Direct

• The more I talk about things, the more I understand myself.

  

  Gavin Rossdale Bush
  • Myself
  • Understand
  • Talk

• I write synopses after the book is completed. I can't write it beforehand, because I don't know what the book's about. I invent something for my publisher because he asks for one, but the final book ends up very differently.

  

  Jackie Collins
  • Up
  • Book
  • Know

• I'm the most Colombian of the Colombians, even though I've lived 47 years outside of Colombia. I've lived 13 years in New York, and I never did a painting about New York. I've lived in France more than 30 years, and I've never painted Paris.

  

  Fernando Botero
  • Painting
  • New York
  • Paris

• The reason that the all-American boy prefers beauty to brains is that he can see better than he can think.

  

  Farrah Fawcett
  • American
  • Think
  • Boy

• I'd like to imagine that in order to beat me a person would have to play almost perfect tennis.

  

  Venus Williams
  • Perfect
  • Play
  • Person

• In South Africa, being Chinese meant I wasn't white and I wasn't black. I trained in Baragwanath Hospital, the largest black hospital in South Africa. That was around 1976, the time of the Soweto Uprising, when police fired on children and students who were protesting. I was part of the group of interns who volunteered to treat them.

  

  Patrick Soon-Shiong
  • Time
  • Children
  • Black

• Theo van Doesburg wanted to teach in the Bauhaus in 1922. I refused, however, to appoint him since I considered him to be too aggressive and too rigidly theoretical: he would have wrought havoc in the Bauhaus through his fanatic attitude, which ran counter to my own broader approach.

  

  Walter Gropius
  • Attitude
  • Teach
  • Him

• Doing stunt work is risky, but it's something I enjoy.

  

  Verne Troyer
  • Work
  • Enjoy
  • Doing

• The greatest pleasure in life is doing what people say you cannot do.

  

  Walter Bagehot
  • People
  • Life
  • Greatest

• But acting just sort of happened and I found that I loved it. It was such a challenge.

  

  Rachael Leigh Cook
  • Challenge
  • Acting
  • Loved

• Just as soaps were very pivotal in the transition from radio to television, they will be right in the thick of things again in the transition from television to the Internet. Exciting news.

  

  Cameron Mathison
  • Internet
  • News
  • Transition

• Popular culture is simply a reflection of what the majority seems to want.

  

  Victor Davis Hanson
  • Want
  • Culture
  • Popular

• I need to start honing in on projects that I want to devote my time to and not put my energies into the unattainable ones.

  

  Dan Deacon
  • Time
  • Want
  • Start

• 'Harry Potter' created a generation of readers in an era when kids could have disappeared into the depths of the Internet. That's no small feat. Every book series owes J.K. Rowling a debt of gratitude.

  

  Gary Ross
  • Book
  • Kids
  • Small

• I'd like them to see that those things that set us apart or make us different can be wonderful contributions to the world around us. I'd like them to see that size and color are irrelevant to the dreams we envision for ourselves. And I'd also love for them to see that life is a journey, and every step of the way, we can learn something and become stronger and wiser.

  

  Gloria Estefan Miami Sound Machine
  • Life
  • World
  • Different

• I endeavor to be wise when I cannot be merry, easy when I cannot be glad, content with what cannot be mended and patient when there be no redress.

  

  Elizabeth Montagu
  • Wise

• My father was Abe Burrows, who was a Broadway legend. 'Guys and Dolls,' 'How to Succeed,' 'Cactus Flower,' '40 Karats,' 'Can-Can,' 'Happy Hunting,' 'Reclining Figure,' it goes on. He was a legend, and when I was growing up, I was Abe Burrows' kid. That was my self-esteem.

  

  James Burrows
  • Up
  • Happy
  • Father

• I guess that I've always wanted to be a Bond villain.

  

  Angelina Jolie
  • Wanted
  • Villain

• Biography is the mesh through which real life escapes.

  

  Tom Stoppard
  • Life
  • Real
  • Biographies