Tom Stoppard Quotes

In grammar school I read 'Act One' by Moss Hart, and being a playwright struck me as the most magical and romantic career anyone could have... But I never did write a play.

I never wanted to be a playwright.

I am an internationally produced playwright.

I did write a couple of original screenplays, but I'd rather write plays.

A lot of American playwrights seem to have a career as a playwright. I don't consider it a career at all.

I didn't study writing or drama or anything like that... that was not really a viable route for me.

I'm a writer. I'm not an actress.

My job is essentially that of an entertainer, no different to that of a musician, no different to that of an actor. I just happen to be an author.

I'm not a playwright.

In Hollywood, they think they know it all. You, as a writer, are essentially an outsider. Novelists and short-story writers, especially.

My father was a writer and an acting teacher.

My father was a screenwriter, but he was also a novelist.

I want to be a playwright the way people are bank tellers. I want to keep doing it and have it go steadily and smoothly.

Yeah, I have the detail-obsessed, controlling personality of a novelist, but I somehow ended up writing plays.

When I was first starting to write plays, I quite literally had never heard of the idea of studying playwriting. I wouldn't have studied it even if I had heard of it.

I know I'm really good at writing for the theater. I can deny it all I want. Other people can fight me on it. It doesn't really matter. It's the thing I happen to know is my gift.

I started writing because it was hard to find acting jobs. I didn't like any monologues in auditions, so I started to write my own things. Since then, I have written a couple of shows. I was nominated for playwright of the year for a play I wrote called 'Potential Space.'

'The Glass Menagerie' by Tennessee Williams is a great play. I had to read it for school when I was younger, but I started writing scripts after that. That's what got me into writing.

My first writing job was with a company called TheatreworksUSA.

I've never written a play before, and I'll never write one again. You can quote me.

I've written poetry since I was a kid. As the years went on, I got into writing stories and screenplays, but I always, always kept up with poetry as well.

Anyone who works in the arts knows, if you're writing a novel or a play or anything, you have to be ready for someone to say, 'Your time is up.'

It's very hard to be a playwright because it's very competitive.

Our function as playwrights to some extent is to make audiences see with their ears, because films make us see with our eyes much better.

Playwrights are naturally wary and protective - God, who's more protective than a playwright? You read a play, the playwright wants to hear from you immediately.