It's silly to be depressed by it. I mean one thinks of it like being alive in a box, one keeps forgetting to take into account the fact that one is dead, which should make all the difference, shouldn't it? I mean, you'd never know you were in a box would you?... Even taking into account the fact that you're dead, it isn't a pleasant thought. Especially if you're dead, really. Ask yourself, if I asked you straight off-- I'm going to stuff you in this box now would you rather be alive or dead? Naturally you'd prefer to be alive. Life in a box is better than no life at all.
Tom StoppardYou think human nature is a beast, that it must be put in a cage. But it's the cage that makes the animal bad.
Tom StoppardThe ordinary-sized stuff which is our lives, the things people write poetry aboutโcloudsโdaffodilsโwaterfallsโwhat happens in a cup of coffee when the cream goes inโthese things are full of mystery, as mysterious to us as the heavens were to the Greeks.
Tom StoppardI have to go with what I do, and what I do has more to do with what people say to each other than telling a story through images. Of course, you're trying to do both. And there are some people who are brilliant at it, but I don't consider myself to be particularly good at it. My mind gets into a verbal mode.
Tom Stoppard