My life is sectioned off into hot flushes, pursuits of this or that.
Interpretation
Life is often divided into intense experiences and various pursuits.
In this quote, Tom Stoppard reflects on the fragmented nature of life, suggesting that our existence consists of overwhelming moments and different endeavors that capture our attention. The mention of 'hot flushes' implies periods of intensity or passion, while 'pursuits of this or that' emphasizes the distractions and goals we chase throughout our lives. Together, these ideas convey a sense of the chaotic and multifaceted experience of being alive.
In practice
During a motivational speech about the complexities of life.
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.
You can't cling to the side your whole life, that one lesson every parent needs to teach a child is "If you don't want to sink, you better figure out how to swim
And when you're young you want to fit in. Hell, I still want to fit in with certain humans, but as you get older you get a little more discriminating.
My life has been the polar opposite of safe, but I am proud of it and so is my son, and that is good enough for me. I would do it all over again without changing the beat, although I have never recommended it to others. That would be cruel and irresponsible and wrong, I think, and I am none of those things.
You might get nothing out of it at all except a beautiful, long life where all you did was follow your gorgeous curiosity. And that should be enough too.
Life is beautiful. You have to be thankful that we are living. Wherever you look is beauty. I know about the bad things, but I look for the good things.
Life is a promise; fulfill it.
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