A movie camera is like having someone you have a crush on watching you from afar - you pretend it's not there.
Tom StoppardRead
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.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Love is a complex and profound emotion that often seeks a connection with others rather than just oneself.
In this quote, Tom Stoppard reflects on the multifaceted nature of love, suggesting that while it encompasses many aspects, there is a fundamental instinct to connect with others that can be easily overlooked or denied. Love is portrayed as a deep emotional drive that goes beyond self-interest and seeks a genuine bond with another person.
Themes
LoveConnectionEmotionSelflessnessRelationships
In practice
Example use cases
During a wedding speech, one could quote this to emphasize the depth of love and connection between partners.
More from Tom Stoppard
All quotes →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
I think theater ought to be theatrical ... you know, shuffling the pack in different ways so that it's -- there's always some kind of ambush involved in the experience. You're being ambushed by an unexpected word, or by an elephant falling out of the cupboard, whatever it is.
Tom StoppardRead
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