A collection of Writing Quotes by Tom Stoppard
I write plays because writing dialogue is the only respectable way of contradicting yourself. I put a position, rebut it, refute the rebuttal, and rebut the refutation.
I cannot say that I write with any social objective. One writes because one loves writing, really.
I never had any frustration about writing uncredited. I always felt that the satisfaction of doing it was in the doing of it, really, and getting recognised by the small number of people that know what you did.
I write scenes - often quite long scenes - mainly because I still get seduced into writing six lines where one and a half will do.