'Just get the right words in the right order'

 

“Idon't think writers are sacred, but words are. They deserve respect. If you getthe right ones in the right order, you might nudge the world a little or make apoem that children will speak for you when you are dead.”– Tom Stoppard

 

 A Czech-born playwright (in 1937), Stoppard escapedthe Nazis as a child, ending up in Great Britain.  He changed his name and started writingjournalistically in 1954.   Then in 1960he decided to try writing plays and his first effort, A Walk on the Water, not only made it to the stage but wastelevised by the BBC.   His second play Rosencrantz andGuildenstern Are Dead earned himinternational acclaim from which he never looked back, earning 4 Tony Awards inthe process.

 

Also a writer for radio, televisionand film, he co-wrote the Academy Award winning script for the film Shakespearein Love, in which Gwyneth Paltrow also won for Best Actress in her firststarring role.  In 2013 Stoppard was awarded the prestigiousPEN Pinter Prize for lifetime achievement.

 

“I cannot say that I write with anysocial objective,” Stoppard said.  “Onewrites because one loves writing, really.”

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