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Tom Stoppard

Tom Stoppard Quotes

Playwright

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Famous Tom Stoppard Quotes

“Words... They're innocent, neutral, precise, standing for this, describing that, meaning the other, so if you look after them you can build bridges across incomprehension and chaos. But when they get their corners knocked off, they're no good any more... I don't think writers are sacred, but words are. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones in the right order, you can nudge the world a little or make a poem which children will speak for you when you're dead.”

IfsThinkingWorldLooksChildrenLittlesOrderSpeakDeserveStandingSacredChaosCornersInnocentBridgesPrecisePower Of WordsDescribingNudgeIncomprehension
Book:Arcadia
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“When you stir your rice pudding, Septimus, the spoonful of jam spreads itself round making red trails like the picture of a meteor in my astronomical atlas. But if you stir backwards, the jam will not come together again. Indeed, the pudding does not notice and continues to turn pink just as before. Do you think this is odd?”

IfsThinkingDoeTogetherTurnsRedRoundsSpreadOddBackwardsTrailsRiceJamPuddingTogether AgainAtlasMeteorsArcadiaRice Pudding
Book:Arcadia
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“It's silly to be depressed by it. I mean one thinks of it like being alive in a box, one keeps forgetting to take into account the fact that one is dead, which should make all the difference, shouldn't it? I mean, you'd never know you were in a box would you?... Even taking into account the fact that you're dead, it isn't a pleasant thought. Especially if you're dead, really. Ask yourself, if I asked you straight off-- I'm going to stuff you in this box now would you rather be alive or dead? Naturally you'd prefer to be alive. Life in a box is better than no life at all.”

IfsThinkingKnowsShouldMeanFactsAsksStuffDifferencesForgetAliveAccountsBoxesSillyPleasantRosencrantz And GuildensternPleasant Thoughts
Author:Tom Stoppard
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