"My wife and I are deeply saddened to learn of the death of one of our greatest writers, Sir Tom Stoppard. A dear friend who wore his genius lightly, he could, and did, turn his pen to any subject, challenging, moving and inspiring his audiences, borne from his own personal history. We send our most heartfelt sympathy to his beloved family. Let us all take comfort in his immortal line: "Look on every exit as being an entrance somewhere else.""

"Stoppard just assumed his audience was as well read and inquisitive as he was. … Philosophy is the foundation of Stoppard’s plays. They cite Aquinas, Aristotle, Ayer, Bentham, Kant, Moore, Plato, Ramsey, Russell, Ryle and Zeno."

"When Harold Pinter was lobbying to have London's Comedy Theatre renamed the Pinter Theatre, Stoppard wrote back: "Have you thought, instead, of changing your name to Harold Comedy?""

"Tom Stoppard is in my pantheon. I just saw Leopoldstadt on Broadway, and was equally moved and impressed. (Moved to the point of sobbing, impressed to the point of continued hero worship.) His Arcadia is my favorite play, and had a seismic impact on my writing."

"I agree with everything you say, but I would attack to the death your right to say it."

"It seems pointless to be quoted if one isn't going to be quotable … it's better to be quotable than honest."

"When someone disagrees with you on a moral point you assume that he is one step behind in his thinking, and he assumes that he has gone one step ahead. But I take both parts, O'Hara, leapfrogging myself along the great moral issues, refuting myself and rebutting the refutation towards a truth that must be the compound of two opposite half-truths. And you never reach it because there is always something more to say."

"My whole life is waiting for the questions to which I have prepared answers."

"Since we cannot hope for order let us withdraw with style from the chaos."

"Revolution is a trivial shift in the emphasis of suffering; the capacity for self-indulgence changes hands."

"I still believe that if your aim is to change the world, journalism is a more immediate short-term weapon."

"I began my talk by saying that I had not written my plays for purposes of discussion. At once, I felt a ripple of panic run through the hall. I suddenly realised why. To everyone present, discussion was the whole point of drama. That was why the faculty had been endowed — that was why all those buildings had been put up! I had undermined the entire reason for their existence."