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
There are certain sorts of jokes which have only to do with the substitution of the unexpected word in a familiar context. If you translated something into French and then had it translated back into English by somebody who didn't know the original, you'd lose what was funny.
If you associate enough with older people who do enjoy their lives, who are not stored away in any golden ghettos, you will gain a sense of continuity and of the possibility for a full life.
Eternity's a terrible thought. I mean, where's it all going to end?
To be 64 is appalling, so what does it matter being 65?
When Auden said his poetry didn't save one Jew from the gas chamber, he'd said it all.
Why should I write a play? I don't have to write a play, do I? But somehow, I think that's what I'm here for, so I'd better do it.
To be in love with Debo Devonshire is hardly a distinction.
With plays that require any kind of reading program, I'm reading for a couple of years before using the material.
I don't respond well to the Olympic noise, which is the noise of nationalistic triumphalism.
With his earliest work he stood alone in British theatre up against the bewilderment and incomprehension of critics, the audience and writers too.
Very often in Chekhov, where he exhibits a little bit of human behavior that you recognize as true, you give a little laugh. It's like a reflex.
You end up going to school plays quite a bit as a parent, there are a lot of kids who are doing the job as well as they can, but there's always one or two who seem much more at home in the world of impersonation.
Everybody I know is writing plays twice a year. It's sort of making me feel I am not up to much.
You are the plays you write. How on earth could you write them otherwise? They're projections of your own predilections.