“The whole philosophy of modern times is to dissolve distinctions between individuals and deal with them as large collections of people. It's essentially self-interested on the part of author...”
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Author detail
Sir Tom Stoppard (born Tomáš Sträussler) was a Czech and English playwright and screenwriter. He wrote for film, radio, stage, and television, finding prominence with plays. His work covered the themes of human rights, censorship, and political freedom, often delving into the deeper philosophical bases of society. Stoppard was a playwright of the National Theatre; one of the most internationally performed dramatists of his generation; and critically compared with William Shakespeare and George Bernard Shaw. He was knighted for his contribution to theatre by Queen Elizabeth II in 1997 and awarded the Order of Merit in 2000.
Quotes
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“The whole philosophy of modern times is to dissolve distinctions between individuals and deal with them as large collections of people. It's essentially self-interested on the part of author...”
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“My intention still is to write a play to commemorate, possibly rather skeptically, the 50th anniversary of the Russian revolution. I started it at the beginning of 1966, but confronted with...”
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“What is the society we wish to protect? Is it the society of complete surveillance for the commonwealth? Is this the wealth we seek to have in common - optimal security at the cost of maxima...”
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“Pink Floyd are one of a handful of bands I've listened to a lot and whose concerts I've been to. I love the experience. I don't dance; I just jig up and down like everybody else.”
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“I'm a conservative kind of person. I don't think rightwing is quite the same thing. But I acknowledge my conservatism of temperament.”
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“All of my scripts are based on other people's novels. Generally, I consider myself as one who writes for theatre. I do not see film work as a continuation of writing for theatre. It is more...”
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“In the theater there is often a tension, almost a contradiction, between the way real people would think and behave, and a kind of imposed dramaticness.”
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“The media. It sounds like a convention of spiritualists.”
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“It's not the voting that's democracy; it's the counting.”
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“Skill without imagination is craftsmanship and gives us many useful objects such as wickerwork picnic baskets. Imagination without skill gives us modern art.”
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“One senses that all the Bolsheviks, even those who ended up as cold-blooded autocrats, had been on a journey from idealism to something else, and didn't notice - to mix periods - when the Ru...”
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“I went to an English school and was brought up in English. So I don't feel Czech.”
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“If I hadn't left Czechoslovakia, I would have been dead.”
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“I just happen to know quite a lot of what happened in Czechoslovakia between 1968 and the fall of Communism.”
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“When 'The Dark Side of the Moon' was a new album in 1973, a friend of mine walked into my room where I was working with a copy in his hand and said, 'You really have to do a play about this...”
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“I was delighted to not go to university. I couldn't wait to be out of education.”
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“From principles is derived probability, but truth or certainty is obtained only from facts.”
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“For me, human rights simply endorse a view of life and a set of moral values that are perfectly clear to an eight-year-old child. A child knows what is fair and isn't fair, and justice deriv...”
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“Well I believe in the desirability of an optimal society.”
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“I don't keep a diary and I throw away nearly all the paper I might have kept. I don't keep an archive. There's something worrying about my make-up that I try to leave no trace of myself apar...”
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