Том Стоппард цитаты

„Проблема людей в том, что почти никто больше не ведет себя естественно, все ведут себя так, как от них того ждут, как если бы они прочитали о себе или увидели себя в кино. Вся жизнь сейчас такая. Нельзя даже думать естественно, потому что для тебя уже выбрано мнение, которое ты должен выражать. Оригинальность растрачена. И все-таки тяжело отказаться от веры в неповторимость человека.“

—  Том Стоппард

„Один китаец, из династии Тан, по мнению некоторых, большой философ. Ему однажды приснилось, что он — бабочка, и с этой минуты он уже никогда не был полностью уверен, что он не бабочка, которой снится, что она китайский философ.“

—  Том Стоппард

„Розенкранц: И это всё, на что они способны, — умирать?
Актёр: Нет, нет — они ещё красиво убивают. Некоторые убивают даже красивей, чем умирают. Остальные лучше умирают, чем убивают. Это труппа.“

—  Том Стоппард, книга Розенкранц и Гильденстерн мертвы

Розенкранц и Гильденстерн мертвы

„Человек, разговаривающий сам с собой, но со смыслом, не более безумен, чем человек, разговаривающий с другими, но несущий околесицу.“

—  Том Стоппард

„I love love. I love having a lover and being one. The insularity of passion. I love it. I love the way it blurs the distinction between everyone who isn't one's lover.“

—  Tom Stoppard, The Real Thing

Источник: The Real Thing

„We cross our bridges when we come to them and burn them behind us, with nothing to show for our progress except a memory of the smell of smoke, and a presumption that once our eyes watered.“

—  Tom Stoppard

Источник: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead

„We're actors — we're the opposite of people!“

—  Tom Stoppard, книга Розенкранц и Гильденстерн мертвы

Источник: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead

„Eternity is a terrible thought. I mean, where's it going to end?“

—  Tom Stoppard, книга Розенкранц и Гильденстерн мертвы

Источник: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead

„Rosencrantz: I don't believe in it anyway.
Guildenstern: What?
Rosencrantz: England.
Guildenstern: Just a conspiracy of cartographers, then?“

—  Tom Stoppard, книга Розенкранц и Гильденстерн мертвы

Источник: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead

„There must have been a moment, at the beginning, were we could have said -- no. But somehow we missed it.“

—  Tom Stoppard

Источник: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead

„It is a defect of God's humour that he directs our hearts everywhere but to those who have a right to them.“

—  Tom Stoppard, Arcadia

Lady Croom, Act II
Источник: Arcadia (1993)

„An artist is the magician put among men to gratify — capriciously — their urge for immortality.“

—  Tom Stoppard, Travesties

Joyce, Act I
Stoppard called this "the most important" speech in the play.
Travesties (1974)
Контексте: An artist is the magician put among men to gratify — capriciously — their urge for immortality. The temples are built and brought down around him, continuously and contiguously, from Troy to the fields of Flanders. If there is any meaning in any of it, it is in what survives as art, yes even in the celebration of tyrants, yes even in the celebration of nonentities. What now of the Trojan War if it had been passed over by the artist's touch? Dust. A forgotten expedition prompted by Greek merchants looking for new markets. A minor redistribution of broken pots. But it is we who stand enriched, by a tale of heroes, of a golden apple, a wooden horse, a face that launched a thousand ships — and above all, of Ulysses, the wanderer, the most human, the most complete of all heroes — husband, father, son, lover, farmer, soldier, pacifist, politician, inventor and adventurer.

„Look on every exit as being an entrance somewhere else.“

—  Tom Stoppard, книга Розенкранц и Гильденстерн мертвы

Источник: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead

„Life in a box is better than no life at all, I expect. You'd have a chance at least. You could lie there thinking: Well, at least I'm not dead.“

—  Tom Stoppard, книга Розенкранц и Гильденстерн мертвы

Источник: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead

„I mean, if Beethoven had been killed in a plane crash at twenty-two, the history of music would have been very different. As would the history of aviation, of course.“

—  Tom Stoppard, The Real Thing

Henry, Act II, scene V
Источник: The Real Thing (1982)
Контексте: Buddy Holly was twenty-two. Think of what he might have gone on to achieve. I mean, if Beethoven had been killed in a plane crash at twenty-two, the history of music would have been very different. As would the history of aviation, of course.

„Life is a gamble, at terrible odds. If it were a bet you wouldn’t take it.“

—  Tom Stoppard

Источник: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead

„Pirates could happen to anyone.“

—  Tom Stoppard

Источник: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead

„We are tied down to a language which makes up in obscurity what it lacks in style.“

—  Tom Stoppard

Источник: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead

„We do on stage things that are supposed to happen off. Which is a kind of integrity, if you look on every exit as being an entrance somewhere else.“

—  Tom Stoppard, книга Розенкранц и Гильденстерн мертвы

Источник: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead