QuoteProject
A great production of a black comedy is better than a mediocre production of a comedy of errors.
Tom Stoppard
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

Quality in art should be prioritized over mere attempts at humor.

Tom Stoppard's quote emphasizes the value of excellence in artistic production, particularly in the realm of comedy. It suggests that a well-crafted piece of black comedy, which may tackle darker themes with sophistication, is far superior to a poorly executed traditional comedy that relies on misunderstandings, known as a 'comedy of errors.' This underscores the idea that depth and quality should take precedence over superficial entertainment.

Themes

ArtComedyQualityProductionBlack Comedy

In practice

Example use cases

This quote can be used in a discussion about what makes art truly impactful.

More from Tom Stoppard

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.
Tom StoppardRead
A movie camera is like having someone you have a crush on watching you from afar - you pretend it's not there.
Tom StoppardRead
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.
Tom StoppardRead
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.
Tom StoppardRead
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.
Tom StoppardRead
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.
Tom StoppardRead

Similar quotes

I'm always struck by the kids who turn up in New York and LA, and places in between. Chicago. Wanting to do theater, wanting to do independent film. Wanting to break into television or radio.
Frank RichRead
The best poems take long journeys. I like poetry best that journeys--while remaining in the human scale--to the other world, which may be a place as easily overlooked as a bee's wing
Robert BlyRead
The creative adult is the child who has survived.
Ursula K. Le GuinRead
I try to have each book be an antidote to the one before.
Colson WhiteheadRead
When I provided the disembodied arm as the logo for 'The Man With the Golden Arm,' it was the first time an advertising-publicity campaign was based on a single symbol. Until then film companies used a variety of symbols and photographs to cover all bets. The concept of using one logo was mine and Otto Preminger's.
Saul BassRead
I always panic on the first day of work. You can do all the Stanislavsky-backstory homework, but when that moment arrives and you are in the clothes, hair, and makeup of somebody else, and you're saying the words created by somebody else - I never know how to do it. It's a complete mystery to me.
Richard E. GrantRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.