Tom Stoppard Quotes

The work itself is what motivates me. I like my own stuff, you know? I like the way it looks. I do it to please myself first.

Awards are not the only markers of success; I don't judge myself just based on them. I believe that each cinema-goer has his own mental trophies.

True artists are almost the only men who do their work for pleasure.

I did my best work in The Mosquito Coast. I know it wasn't such a big hit, but for me it was more meaningful than anything else I'd ever done.

All any artist can do is please themselves.

One might think that the money value of an invention constitutes its reward to the man who loves his work. But... I continue to find my greatest pleasure, and so my reward, in the work that precedes what the world calls success.

And the fact that you must make the movie for yourself because no one else will ever fully appreciate the endeavor, makes it a more rewarding challenge.

I don't make films to win prizes. I make films to make films.

I felt my music wasn't aiming at anybody. Everything I was doing was because it was a good song.

It's hard for me to judge my own films as an artist sometimes. But as an artist, I did feel a fulfillment working on them, you know?

Your motivation gets sucked away when you know that whatever you do your name won't be on the team sheet.

I enjoy the music I make because I have to - if I didn't, I wouldn't want to make it, and I wouldn't want it to be heard by other people.

I'm really an artist. I really do this. I don't need the money. It doesn't matter to me.

I do big films just to experience personal satisfaction.

The effort you put into anything when you're a designer is 100% because it's all about what you get back out from it.

It's always been important to me to do work that I'm proud of and be part of stories that I'm proud of, so being on a popular show was never really the goal.

You do the work and you want people to see it; but, um while I'm doing the work, the result doesn't matter at all to me. Ultimately, I don't, I don't care whether the film is - you know - some big giant box-office bonanza and I don't care if its a complete flop. To me, when a film gets made and it's actually finished it's a success. They're all a success in their own way.

For me, awards are not what I really care about - the work is what I really care about. And, I am especially proud that I was acknowledged for doing work that I was so proud of and that meant a lot to me.

Don't write for money. Write because you love to do something. If you write for money, you won't write anything worth reading.

There are probably seven persons, in all, who really like my work; and they are enough. I should write even if I were the only patient reader, for my aim is merely self-expression.

Popular success is a wonderful gift if it happens, but like money, it's not the motivation. The effort to create a work of art that is true and potentially lasting, that is the very best work of art you can create at that point in your life - a book that may only reach or move a few people but will seem to people somehow transformative. That's the ideal; that's always the motivation.

I’ve never done a film for the money

I wrote because I could not help it. There was something that I wanted to say, and I said it: that was all. The fame and the money and the usefulness might or might not follow. It was not by my endeavor if they did.

I wanna make music that I feel proud of when I'm onstage, that I feel like I put my all into.

What I've learned from the Pixar guys is 'If you work for the love of what you're doing, it's always going to come out right.' Cause if you're working for a paycheck then it's not going to work in the long run; it's not going to feed your heart and soul.