Tom Stoppard Quotes
Writing a play is like smashing that [glass] ashtray, filming it in slow motion, and then running the film in reverse, so that the fragments of rubble appear to fly together. You start - or at least I start - with the rubble.

Quotes to Explore
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There is always shame in the creation of an expressive work, whether it's a book or a clay pot. Every artist worries about how they will be seen by others through their work. When you create, you aspire to do justice to yourself, to remake yourself, and there is always the fear that you will expose the very thing that you hoped to transform.
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For someone who writes fiction, in order to activate the imagination and the unconscious, it's essential to be free.
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These 'Sports Illustrated' people, they know how to hold a secret.
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The modern Muslim state has never presented itself as secular. Muslim nationalist forces, trapped by a militant and colonialist West unable to share or export its humanism, were driven to build up a rampart, to entrench themselves within the past.
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But I used to have a bit of a gambling problem. And that would have been the answer to my prayers. It got worse when I started playing this character, too.
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I don't know that much about who directs what movies, but I'm definitely inspired by the look of old movies; I find them to be really beautiful.
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Your mind is what makes everything else work.
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People think I'm just an old Luddite, but that's untrue. I buy every new gizmo as it comes out, play with it until I understand how it works, and then give it away.
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I used to have the very standard worldview. I can easily identify with people who see computers getting faster and smarter, and technology getting more and more beneficial, without seeing the other side.
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I've discovered that I value simplicity above all in dressing. I don't like anything I wear to be too complicated or fussy.
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There is no peace because the making of peace is at least as costly as the making of war - at least as exigent, at least as disruptive, at least as liable to bring disgrace and prison and death in its wake.
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I can feel it in my bones that no matter what we do, even if we do not do anything, the revolutionary government of Madame Cory Aquino will collapse.
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Being first lady is the hardest unpaid job in the world.
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Girls shouldn't drink because their bodies are not made for drinking and smoking.
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French people are never happy with what they have. They're always complaining. They're happy when they're complaining.
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Custody and guardianship by the parent of his child does not arise under the Constitution, laws or treaties of the United States and is not dependent on them.
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There are artists who think they have to be on top all the time. I think that would be exhausting.
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My parents had no money, but they had strong values that I've carried throughout my life - things like not going into debt, never borrowing money, never leveraging, paying your bills on time, keeping your agreements, selling customers the right things, treating employees right, and growing things.
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I was ill. I was told I was stressed, so I had to get everything checked out. I didn't think I was, but someone told me I was. As a result, I went to get a blood test. I'd never had one before, so I held my breath when I was getting it done. That caused me to go into a fit.
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Half of me knows too much to be carefree. But the other half knows enough to be grateful.
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Physical rehab is often very, very hard work.
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I think I've written 40 books, and none of them have been heavy on action. I'm an introspective person.
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Affirmative action has a negative effect on our society when it means counting us like so many beans and dividing us into separate piles.
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Writing a play is like smashing that [glass] ashtray, filming it in slow motion, and then running the film in reverse, so that the fragments of rubble appear to fly together. You start - or at least I start - with the rubble.