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Tom Stoppard

Playwright and screenwriter

United Kingdom · 1937–2025

Born Tomáš Sträussler in Zlín, Czechoslovakia, and brought to England in 1946 after wartime years in Singapore and India. His first major play, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, was staged at the Edinburgh Festival in 1966 and at the National Theatre the following year. He also wrote extensively for radio, television and film.

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Question What are you unwilling to optimise?

I don’t think of it as research. I read for interest and enjoyment, and when I cease to enjoy it I stop. I didn’t research quantum mechanics but I was fascinated by the mystery that lies in the foundation of the observable world, of which the most familiar example is the wave/particle duality of light. I thought it was a good metaphor for human personality. The language of espionage lends itself to this duality—think of the double agent.

Recorded Shusha Guppy, The Paris Review, Issue 109, Winter 1988, 1988 source ↗

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