When I was 20, the idea of having a play on anywhere was just beyond my dreams.
Interpretation
This quote reflects the realization of dreams and aspirations over time.
Tom Stoppard's quote emphasizes the transformative journey from youth to maturity, illustrating how our ambitions evolve as we grow. At 20, Stoppard could hardly fathom the possibility of producing a play, highlighting how dreams can seem unattainable in our early years, yet with perseverance and growth, they can eventually become a reality.
In practice
Use this quote during a speech to inspire young artists about the possibilities of their future.
Love is - OK, it's 20 things, but it isn't 19. And I think that love reaches for something which is very, very deep in us and is very easily obscured, and is also very easily denied, which is the instinct towards the other person, other than toward the self.
A movie camera is like having someone you have a crush on watching you from afar - you pretend it's not there.
I once did a radio program with a famous materialist, that is to say a scientist who believed that absolutely everything was physical and that all emotions were reductive to little electrical impulses in your neurons. And I found that I didn't believe that. But what the emotions really are, I don't have an alternative theory.
One of the reasons why there are so many versions of Chekhov is that translations date in a way that the original doesn't; translations seem to be of their time.
A Chinaman of the T'ang Dynasty—and, by which definition, a philosopher—dreamed he was a butterfly, and from that moment he was never quite sure that he was not a butterfly dreaming it was a Chinese philosopher. Envy him; in his two-fold security.
Chekhov directors and Chekhov actors love working on his plays because there seems to be no end to what you can find out about the micro-narrative when you're investigating a text.
They'll forget all the rubbish when I've gone, and they'll remember the football. If only one person thinks I'm the best player in the world, that's good enough for me.
When investing, pessimism is your friend, euphoria the enemy.
As long as my face is on page one, I don't care what they say about me on page seventeen.
Africa's vibrancy and entrepreneurial spirit is un-matched. There's huge potential here to grow business, create jobs, and to improve living standards.
Efficiency is doing better what is already being done.
After the enormous success of All About my Mother, all the awards and everything, I wanted to start a movie in exactly the same place that I used to be before. I wanted to show that all of the success had not changed my perception.
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