3 December 2020 Tom Stoppard Back in the East you can’t do much without the right papers, but with the right papers you can do anything The believe in papers. Papers are power.
3 December 2020 Tom Stoppard Beauty is desired in order that it may be befouled not for its own sake, but for the joy brought by the certainty of profaning it.
3 December 2020 Tom Stoppard A healthy attitude is contagious but don’t wait to catch it from others. Be a carrier.
3 December 2020 Tom Stoppard The House of Lords, an illusion to which I have never been able to subscribe – responsibility without power, the prerogative of the eunuch throughout the ages.
3 December 2020 Tom Stoppard From as long as, literally as far back as I can remember I’ve liked puns, word jokes, I can literally recall looking at a comic at the age of six or seven and I remember what I enjoyed and what it was precisely and how the joke worked.
3 December 2020 Tom Stoppard I was delighted to not go to university. I couldn’t wait to be out of education.
3 December 2020 Tom Stoppard You can’t but know that if you can capture the emotions of the audience as well as their minds, the play will work better, because it’s a narrative art form.
3 December 2020 Tom Stoppard Skill without imagination is craftsmanship and gives us many useful objects such as wickerwork picnic baskets. Imagination without skill gives us modern art.
3 December 2020 Tom Stoppard I think that the present is worth attention, one shouldn’t sacrifice it to future conceptions of, of this future or that future.
3 December 2020 Tom Stoppard My work always tried to unite the true with the beautiful but when I had to choose one or the other, I usually chose the beautiful.
3 December 2020 Tom Stoppard It is not hard to understand modern art. If it hangs on a wall it’s a painting, and if you can walk around it it’s a sculpture.
3 December 2020 Tom Stoppard From principles is derived probability, but truth or certainty is obtained only from facts.
3 December 2020 Tom Stoppard I still believe that if your aim is to change the world, journalism is a more immediate short-term weapon.
