actor

atheism

biography

childhood

circle

civilization

craftsmanship

cricket (sport)

democracy

Edinburgh

election

eternity

exit

fiction

foreign correspondent

free press

imagination

John Ruskin

journalism

life

maturity

media

modern art

money

old age

revolution

skill

suicide

tragedy

uncertainty

voting

occupation / innovator as

playwright

journalist

nationality

British

screenwriter

film director

dramaturge

scientific organization

Royal Society of Literature

translator

American Academy of Arts and Sciences

is a crutch for those who can't stand the reality of God.

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

1s 2istory is an attempt to codify, classify and categorize aspects of human nature that hardly lend themselves to that process.

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

is skill without imagination, giving us such things as wickerwork picnic baskets. Imagination without skill, on the other hand, gives us modern art.

Skill without imagination is craftsmanship and gives us many useful objects such as wickerwork picnic baskets. Imagination without skill gives us modern art. Tom Stoppard

is a better than baseball in that it's hard to imagine how one can ever be expected to take seriously any game which takes less than three days to reach its conclusion.

(comparing baseball unfavourab/y with chicken I don't think I can be expected to take seriously any game which takes less than three days to reach its conclusion.

is not the core of a democracy because of the voting, it's because of the counting.

It's not the voting that's democracy, it's the counting.

is a terrible thought, after all, where's it all going to end'.

Eternity's a terrible thought. I mean, where's it all going to end'

is a way for a writer to make statements he can disown.

I write fiction because it's a way of making statements I can disown, and I write plays because dialogue is the most respectable way of contradicting myself.

is all good and well but it's the newspapers I can't stand.

I'm all for a free Press. It's the newspapers I can't stand.

is hobbled when skill is absent. Imagination without skill gives us modern art, just as skill without imagination is craftsmanship, which gives us wickerwork picnic baskets.

is a more immediate short-term weapon if ones aim is to change the world.

I still believe that if your aim is to change the world, journalism is a more immediate short-term weapon.

is an institution whose fundamental purpose might have once been to educate and inform and even, one might say, elevate. Today, under commercial pressure its purpose is to divert and distract and entertain.

The whole notion of journalism being an institution whose fundamental purpose is to educate and inform and even, one might say, elevate, has altered under commercial pressure, perhaps, into a different kind of purpose, which is to divert and distract and entertain. Tom Stoppard.

is the result of imagination without skill, just as skill without imagination is craftsmanship, which gives us wickerwork picnic baskets.

is a very high price to pay for maturity.

is a trivial shift in the emphasis of suffering.

is craftsmanship when it is without imagination (giving us wickerwork picnic baskets), just as imagination without skill gives us modern art.

is no more than a trick played on the calendar.

is not where democracy lies; it lies in the counting of the votes.

*Experience, the universal Mother of Sciences.

Tom StoppardThinkers

Tom Stoppard