Tom Stoppard

“One doesn't want one's democracy to behave like a dictatorial or fascistic police. One doesn't.”

“Despite the digital age, there is a very large number of venues and spaces that are looking for plays, and many of them are looking for new plays.”

“The thing that happens remarkably often is that the people who are writing a dissertation believe they need to speak to me in order to do their dissertation. They need to interview me.”

“When you write, it's making a certain kind of music in your head. There's a rhythm to it, a pulse, and on the whole, I'm writing to that drum rather than the psychological process.”

“That I have the right to express myself freely at all times in all circumstances entails the idea that free speech is a 'basic human right' possessed by each individual, and, as such, trumps...”

“You do know what's coming up when you're translating. I suppose the concentration, then, is on finding a formulation which is speakable and in character - and economical as well, actually.”

“I've got no interest in educating or instructing people.”

“Revolution is a trivial shift in the emphasis of suffering.”

“The whole thing about writing a play is that it's all about controlling the flow of information traveling from the stage to the audience. It's a stream of information, but you've got your ha...”

“I think I enlist comedy to a serious purpose.”

“Time is short, life is short, there's a lot to know. So I skip the entertainers in the newspaper now. I just haven't got time.”

“Every exit is an entry somewhere else.”

“Theater in New York is nearer to the street. In London, you have to go deep into the building, usually, to reach the place where theater happens. On Broadway, only the fire doors separate yo...”

“Obviously, you would give your life for your children, or give them the last biscuit on the plate. But to me, the trick in life is to take that sense of generosity between kin, make it apply...”

“I don't think falling in love in Slovakia is much different from falling in love in Tunbridge Wells.”

“One of the nice things about the world of filmmaking is that you make friends in the business. Sometimes directors feel a script needs something, but they're not sure what it is, so they sho...”

“In the end, my children put me on to Pink Floyd when they were teenagers.”

“Like many people, I only knew of Ford Madox Ford through a book called 'The Good Soldier,' which is everybody's favorite Ford Madox Ford if they have one, but I came to read 'Parade's End' w...”

“When I was younger, I could do something useful just by being free for half a day, but now I need five days to get the world I've left out of my head and ten days or a fortnight not talking...”

“A free press needs to be a respected press.”