In the end, one has to feel lucky that things fell out O.K. I've felt that all the years I've been writing plays.
Interpretation
Success often comes from feeling fortunate about the outcomes of our efforts.
This quote by Tom Stoppard emphasizes the importance of recognizing the fortunate circumstances that contribute to our achievements. While skill and hard work are essential, feeling lucky also plays a crucial role in the creative process and the completion of significant work, such as writing plays. Stoppard reflects on his career with a sentiment of gratitude, suggesting that luck can guide one's journey in the arts.
In practice
In a speech at a writers' conference, reflecting on the unpredictable nature of creative success.
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.
We are on top at the moment, but not because of the club's financial power. We are in contention for a lot of trophies because of my hard work.
To be a movie star, you have to invent yourself.
I celebrate a victory when I start walking off the field. By the time I get to the locker room, I'm done.
Excellence isn’t about meeting the spec, it’s about setting the spec. It defines what the consumer sees as quality right this minute, and tomorrow, if you’re good, you’ll reset that expectation again
If fame is to come only after death, I am in no hurry for it.
My ambition didn't grow out of nowhere. It was planted in me by a community that nurtured me.
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