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If you want to change something by Tuesday, theater is no good. Journalism is what does that. But, if you want to just alter the chemistry of the moral matrix, then theater has a longer half-life.

Tom Stoppard

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Tom Stoppard
Age: 87
Born: 1937
Born: July 3
Dramaturge
Film Director
Journalist
Playwright
Screenwriter
Translator
Writer
Zlin
Sir Tom Stoppard
Doe
Alter
Something
Chemistry
Good
Journalism
Life
Theater
Longer
Moral
Half
Matrix
Change
Tuesday

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Each move is dictated by the previous one--that is the meaning of order
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Get me inside any boardroom and I'll get any decision I want.
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He says his aim is poetry. One does not aim at poetry with pistols. At poets, perhaps.
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I write plays because dialogue is the most respectable way of contradicting myself.
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From principles is derived probability, but truth or certainty is obtained only from facts.
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Having translated two plays by Chekhov, and not speaking Russian myself - I cannot say one sentence. This may shock people... However, I am not shocked, as it is not hard to find out what the words mean.
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Better a fallen rocket than never a burst of light.
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You can't but know that if you can capture the emotions of the audience as well as their minds, the play will work better, because it's a narrative art form.
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Chater: You dare to call me that. I demand satisfaction! Septimus: Mrs Chater demanded satisfaction and now you are demanding satisfaction. I cannot spend my time day and night satisfying the demands of the Chater family.
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I like pop music. I consider rock 'n' roll to be a branch of pop music.
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When I think of how things could have turned out, I feel as if I've dodged, not just bullets, but 6mm shells.
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Sometimes directors feel a script needs something, but they're not sure what it is, so they show it to a friend if the friend is a writer, he ends up kicking around with that script for a while.
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Rewriting isn't just about dialogue, it's the order of the scenes, how you finish a scene, how you get into a scene. All these final decisions are best made when you're there, watching. It's really enjoyable, but you've got to be there at the director's invitation. You can't just barge in and say, I'm the writer.
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Seduced her? Every time I turned round she was up a library ladder. In the end I gave in. That reminds me—I spotted something between her legs that made me think of you.
Tom Stoppard
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Theater is a recreation. It can be much more, but unless it's recreation, I don't see the point of it.
Tom Stoppard
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I don't act, I don't direct, I don't design.
Tom Stoppard
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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.
Tom Stoppard
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For all the compasses in the world, there's only one direction, and time is its only measure.
Tom Stoppard
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...Everything has to be taken on trust truth is only that what is taken to be true. It's the currency if living. There may be nothing behind it, but it doesn't make any difference so long as it is honoured. One acts on assumptions. What do you assume?
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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