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Fantasy flows in where fact leaves a vacuum.
Tom Stoppard
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Interpretation

What this quote means

Imagination fills the gaps left by reality.

This quote suggests that when there is a lack of concrete facts or certainty in life, our imagination and fantasies can fill that void, allowing us to create narratives or beliefs that may not be grounded in reality. It speaks to the human tendency to seek meaning and understanding through imagination, especially in the face of ambiguity or uncertainty.

Themes

FantasyImaginationFactRealityVacuum

In practice

Example use cases

This quote could be used in a discussion about creativity in art and literature.

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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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