Tom Stoppard Quotes

Sometimes I feel an obligation to be accessible as a personality, but for me the driving force since the beginning has always been good work, taking risks, trying new things. If the door opens, go through it. Always go forwards.

America, in the eyes of the world, typifies above all else this quality of initiative. The greatest successes are nearly all the fruit of initiative. Why do we hold in such high esteem the achievements of the Wright brothers? Because they were illustrious examples of initiative and tenacity. And ideas are born of initiative, the children of men and women of initiative. Advancement is applied initiative. Don't imitate. Initiate.

The idea is to take it a step forward and innovate. Or else why am I doing it? I don't want to be just another can in the assembly line. I want to create - do something that is totally different and unusual.

Everything we are doing is on the cutting edge of so many different industries and so many different interests. We're out there in the sunshine, and it feels fine.

It is often the failure who is the pioneer in new lands, new undertakings, and new forms of expression.

But we also believe in taking risks, because that's how you move things along.

To swear off making mistakes is very easy. All you have to do is swear off having ideas.

The man with a new idea is a crank until his idea succeeds.

I think the character of a man is to establish something where no one else has ever done before.

If you don't take a risk then what's the point. We can't keep making films in the same space.

I don't ever think it's a good idea to try to recreate the success you've had before; it's all about chasing something fresh and new.

It's great to just keep going and throw new stuff out there.

We're not just limited by technology but by our ideas and our experimentation and how quickly we can try things.

What good is an idea if it remains an idea? Try. Experiment. Iterate. Fail. Try again. Change the world.

I always try to do something nobody else has done.

Originality is unexplored territory. You get there by carrying a canoe - you can't take a taxi.

The only phrase I've ever disliked is, 'Why, we've always done it that way.' I always tell young people, 'Go ahead and do it. You can always apologize later.'

Whatever you do, don't play it safe. Don't do things the way they've always been done. Don't try to fit the system. If you do what's expected of you, you'll never accomplish more than others expect.

I always want to do something groundbreaking, something different. I think that's what it's always about. If you have the means to do it, why not?

If you have a good idea, get it out there. For every idea I’ve realized, I have ten I sat on for a decade till someone else did it first. Write it. Shoot it. Publish it. Crochet it, sauté it, whatever. MAKE.

It is only by doing things others have not that one can advance.

Don't look back. Just go ahead. Give ideas away. Under every idea there's a new idea waiting to be born.

Before you tell yourself you have no right to invent this or improve that, remind yourself that the person before you had no right either, but did it anyway.

We cannot afford to be idle. To act on a bad idea is better than to not act at all. Because the worth of the idea never becomes apparent until you do it. Sometimes this idea can be the smallest thing in the world, a little flame that you hunch over and cup with your hand, and pray will not be extinguished by all the storm that howls about it. If you could hold onto that flame, great things could construct around it, that are massive and powerful and world changing, all held up by the tiniest of ideas.

The willingness to experiment with change may be the most essential ingredient to success at anything.