Quotes from Tom Stoppard

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.

An artist is the magician put among men to gratify - capriciously - their urge for immortality.

A genuine love of learning is one of the two delinquencies which cause blindness and lead a young man to ruin.

There is no one so radical as a man-servant whose freedom of the champagne bin has been interfered with.

You are an over-excited little man, with a need for self-expression far beyond the scope of your natural gifts. This is not discreditable. Neither does it make you an artist.

You can persuade a man to believe almost anything provided he is clever enough, but it is much more difficult to persuade someone less clever.

You think human nature is a beast, that it must be put in a cage. But it's the cage that makes the animal bad.

You're familiar with the tragedies of antiquity, are you? The great homicidal classics?

He says his aim is poetry. One does not aim at poetry with pistols. At poets, perhaps.

A healthy attitude is contagious but don't wait to catch it from others. Be a carrier.

Atheism is a crutch for those who cannot bear the reality of God.

Sometimes I watch a scene I've written, and occasionally I think, "Oh, for God's sake, shut up."

Fifty-five crystal spheres geared to God's crankshaft is my idea of a satisfying universe. I can't think of anything more trivial than quarks, quasars, big bangs and black holes.

I didn't feel good about cutting out parts of very famous speeches, ... You think you somehow need all of it or you get none of it, but that's not true.

Childhood is Last Chance Gulch for happiness. After that, you know too much.

It is better to be quotable than to be honest.

It's better to be quotable than to be honest.

Maturity is a high price to pay for growing up.

If you don't know what is being said, the rest of the actor's work is wasted.

As a playwright, you can cover a lot of waterfront without being able to hold your own against an expert in any of those areas. I have no illusions about that.

You are the plays you write. How on earth could you write them otherwise? They're projections of your own predilections.

I'm a playwright who gets involved in movies when I'm not writing a play.

When Auden said his poetry didn't save one Jew from the gas chamber, he'd said it all.

I proudly tell people, 'I have no computer,' so as not to be ashamed of having no computer.