Tom Stoppard
Tom Stoppard
Sir Tom Stoppard OM CBE FRSLis a British playwright and screenwriter, knighted in 1997. He has written prolifically for TV, radio, film and stage, finding prominence with plays such as Arcadia, The Coast of Utopia, Every Good Boy Deserves Favour, Professional Foul, The Real Thing, and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. He co-wrote the screenplays for Brazil, The Russia House, and Shakespeare in Love, and has received one Academy Award and four Tony Awards. Themes of human rights, censorship and...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionPlaywright
Date of Birth3 July 1937
CityZlin, Czech Republic
Like most writers, I just create because I have a story to tell, really.
I went to an English school and was brought up in English. So I don't feel Czech.
I don't respond well to the Olympic noise, which is the noise of nationalistic triumphalism.
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' when it was suggested via Damien Timmer of Mammoth Screen.
I agree with everything you say, but I would attack to the death your right to say it.
I adopted England as least as much as England adopted me.
I actually went to an Oasis concert. I thought they were a brilliant songwriting band.
I think I give the impression of being a romantic, and I think inside I'm quite severe. But some might say they had the opposite impression of me.
I think probably I've been influenced by Chekhov and Walt Disney, if you see what I mean.
I think of myself as a theater animal instead of an intellectual animal.
I think I enlist comedy to a serious purpose.
My brain cells are dying in their trillions.
I seem to be failing in my intention to be as boring as I possibly can be for self-protection.
When I was 20, the idea of having a play on anywhere was just beyond my dreams.