Tom Stoppard
I don't think writers are sacred, but words are. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones in the right order, you might nudge the world a little or make a poem that children will speak for you when you are dead.
A healthy attitude is contagious but don't wait to catch it from others. Be a carrier.
A movie camera is like having someone you have a crush on watching you from afar - you pretend it's not there. Age is a very high price to pay for maturity. Back in the East you can't do much without the right papers, but with the right papers you can do anything The believe in papers. Papers are power. Beauty is desired in order that it may be befouled; not for its own sake, but for the joy brought by the certainty of profaning it. Eternity's a terrible thought. I mean, where's it all going to end? Every exit is an entry somewhere else. From principles is derived probability, but truth or certainty is obtained only from facts. Get me inside any boardroom and I'll get any decision I want.
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. It's better to be quotable than to be honest. It's not the voting that's democracy; it's the counting. James Joyce - an essentially private man who wished his total indifference to public notice to be universally recognized.
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