I never had any frustration about writing uncredited. I always felt that the satisfaction of doing it was in the doing of it, really, and getting recognised by the small number of people that know what you did. – Tom Stoppard
The idea of the state is, or should be, a very limited, prescribed idea. The state looks after the defense of the realm, and other matters – raising revenue to pay for things which are for all of us, and so on. That idea has turned turtle now. The state isn’t any longer perceived as an institution which exists to serve us. – Tom Stoppard
I’m a conservative kind of person. I don’t think rightwing is quite the same thing. But I acknowledge my conservatism of temperament. – Tom Stoppard
There are many, many more small theater spaces than there were when I was starting out. – Tom Stoppard
Everybody I know is writing plays twice a year. It’s sort of making me feel I am not up to much. – Tom Stoppard
The possibilities are infinite with new writing; every time you open a new script, there’s no limit to what it might contain. – Tom Stoppard
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 you from the sidewalk, and you’re lucky if the sound of a police car doesn’t rip the envelope twice a night. – Tom Stoppard
It was a different planet in 1967, the Broadway theatre. It had a little ashtray clamped to the back of every seat and the author got 10% of the gross. – Tom Stoppard
I’m not one of those writers who insist they don’t read reviews and don’t care much about them. I do read them, and I do care about them, and they’re not always what you want them to be in an ideal world. – Tom Stoppard
My father was a doctor in Moravia, in the south of the country. There were a number of Jewish doctors in the hospital there, and at a certain point – almost too late, really, but in time – they were all sent overseas by their employer. – Tom Stoppard
I write plays because writing dialogue is the only respectable way of contradicting yourself. I put a position, rebut it, refute the rebuttal, and rebut the refutation. – Tom Stoppard
I think… the history of civilization is an attempt to codify, classify and categorize aspects of human nature that hardly lend themselves to that process. – Tom Stoppard
I’ve seldom minded other people’s opinions, but the other side of that coin is that I’ve seldom been interested by them, um their opinions about me I mean. – Tom Stoppard
If the audience is made to do not enough work, they resent it without knowing it. Too much and they get lost. There’s a perfect pace to be found. And a perfect place that is different for every line of the play. – Tom Stoppard
Chekhov directors and Chekhov actors love working on his plays because there seems to be no end to what you can find out about the micro-narrative when you’re investigating a text. – Tom Stoppard