Quotes from Tom Stoppard

Any revival in which I am involved is liable to change.

I always loved rock 'n' roll.

I write scenes - often quite long scenes - mainly because I still get seduced into writing six lines where one and a half will do.

I can't remember what my first script was.

I have two garden parties a year to avoid going out to dinner.

I've voted in every election - not always for the same political party and never with any degree of enthusiasm.

'Shakespeare in Love' was a particularly happy film.

I am good at being shown something and counterpunching.

I'm good at being funny.

I don't feel that I belong anywhere. Or rather, if there's a place I belong, I don't feel I'm there.

After all these years, I definitely associate having a pen in my hand with having an ashtray just out of eye line.

My desk faces the water, and I'm perfectly happy sitting there. I'm never lonely.

Responsibilities gravitate to the person who can shoulder them.

I was delighted to not go to university. I couldn't wait to be out of education.

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.

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 album.'

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.

I'm a very boring person.

Success is a sort of metaphysical experience. I live exactly as I did before - only on a slightly bigger scale. Naturally, I won't be corrupted. I'll sit there in my Rolls, uncorrupted, and tell my chauffeur, uncorruptedly, where to go.

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 authority.

I burn with no causes.

I read for interest and enjoyment, and when I cease to enjoy it I stop.

My brain cells are dying in their trillions.

If I wanted to change the world, the last thing I would do is write a play.