Very often in Chekhov, where he exhibits a little bit of human behavior that you recognize as true, you give a little laugh. It's like a reflex.
Interpretation
This quote highlights the connection between recognizing human behavior and finding humor in it.
Tom Stoppard's quote reflects on the cleverness of Anton Chekhov's writing, suggesting that when Chekhov presents an accurate portrayal of human behavior, it often elicits a spontaneous laugh from the audience. This reflexive reaction indicates a deep recognition of truth in the absurdities of life, showcasing how humor can arise from an understanding of our shared humanity.
In practice
In a discussion on literature, you might say this quote to highlight how humor is inherent in understanding human nature.
Love is - OK, it's 20 things, but it isn't 19. And I think that love reaches for something which is very, very deep in us and is very easily obscured, and is also very easily denied, which is the instinct towards the other person, other than toward the self.
A movie camera is like having someone you have a crush on watching you from afar - you pretend it's not there.
I once did a radio program with a famous materialist, that is to say a scientist who believed that absolutely everything was physical and that all emotions were reductive to little electrical impulses in your neurons. And I found that I didn't believe that. But what the emotions really are, I don't have an alternative theory.
One of the reasons why there are so many versions of Chekhov is that translations date in a way that the original doesn't; translations seem to be of their time.
A Chinaman of the T'ang Dynasty—and, by which definition, a philosopher—dreamed he was a butterfly, and from that moment he was never quite sure that he was not a butterfly dreaming it was a Chinese philosopher. Envy him; in his two-fold security.
Chekhov directors and Chekhov actors love working on his plays because there seems to be no end to what you can find out about the micro-narrative when you're investigating a text.
Dogs need to sniff the ground; it's how they keep abreast of current events. The ground is a giant dog newspaper, containing all kinds of late-breaking dog news items, which, if they are especially urgent, are often continued in the next yard.
The wisest and the best of men, nay, the wisest and best of their actions, may be rendered ridiculous by a person whose first object in life is a joke.
The car suddenly veered off the road and we came to a sliding halt in the gravel. I was hurled against the dashboard. My attorney was slumped over the wheel. “What’s wrong?” I yelled. “We can’t stop here. This is bat country!
When someone is impatient and says, 'I haven't got all day,' I always wonder, How can that be? How can you not have all day?
She looked at nice young men as if she could smell their stupidity.
Do you think God gets stoned? I think so ... look at the platypus.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.