Tom Stoppard

“I like plays where people talk a lot. Conversation is sustained. Argument is sustained.”

“Schepisi is the sort of director who could, would, and frequently did phone me whenever he came across a textual problem.”

“I think theater ought to be theatrical.”

“I was so thrilled being a reporter, because it gave you the kind of access to people that you wouldn't ever get to meet.”

“One feels that the past stays the way you left it, whereas the present is in constant movement; it's unstable all around you.”

“If enough things that are untrue are said about you, no one will know what really is true.”

“I'm so grateful to grab hold of something that wants to be a play. It doesn't happen very often. I don't have unwritten plays waiting for their turn.”

“I'm not like some other writers: I have no actual urgent need or desire to add to what's written. You write it; if you're lucky, it's performed, and that's the end of the whole thing.”

“I'm vaguely embarrassed by myself sometimes.”

“It takes a lot of effort to be vibrant.”

“If you are well known at something else, you get points for doing stuff which lots of other people do, and much more, and they don't get any points at all. You get over-praised, over-credite...”