“People have quite a simple idea about 'Anna Karenina.' They feel that ...” — Tom Stoppard Quote

People have quite a simple idea about 'Anna Karenina.' They feel that the novel is entirely about a young married woman who falls in love with a cavalry officer and leaves her husband after much agony, and pays the price for that.

I don't think falling in love in Slovakia is much different from falling in love in Tunbridge Wells.

I get the impression sometimes that a play arrives in a sequence of events that I have no control over.

I am aware, as everybody has to be, that there's more competition for one's attention nowadays.

For all the compasses in the world, there's only one direction, and time is its only measure.

It's only when the markets are perceived to have exhausted themselves on the downside that they turn. Trying to prevent them from going down just merely prolongs the agony.

It is difficult to not let the circumstances define you when everyone feels they know your personal struggles and agony.

Writing is agony. I hate it.

This familiarity with a respected physician and my appreciation of his work, or the tragedy I experienced with the long, tormented agony and death of my mother might have influenced me in wanting to study medicine. It was not the case.

On the outskirts of every agony sits some observant fellow who points.