“Never be daunted in public was an early Hemingway phrase that had more than once bolstered me in my timid twenties. I changed it resolutely to Never be daunted in private . - M.F.K. Fisher A Is for Dining Alone”
“I didn t know where it would lead. I wanted things to develop naturally.”
“They say I am a brave girl I m a hailstorm for the rain I m a volcano for the mountain I m a diamond for the stone And I wonder if I can be real me. I see the crowd I hear the noise I keep my patience. But inside I want to scream Yes I want to scream like hell. And when she call me on phone, I wonder how she knows it. I wonder how she hears those silent words.. How she sees those forbidden tears... I wonder how she knows I am missing somewhere...”
“The idea of not being alone -- of having someone who sees me, same way I see the things that no one else can see, makes me feel like I m real. Like I deserve to exist on this planet alongside everyone else. That I get to be here because there s someone else who wants me here too.”
“We hurt one another. We go through life dressing up in new clothes and covering up our true motives. We meet up lightly, we drink rosé wine, and then we give each other pain. We don t want to! What we want to do, what one really wants to do is put out one s hands—like some dancer, in a trance, just put out one s hands—and touch all the people and tell them: I m sorry. I love you. Thank you for your e-mail. Thank you for coming to see me. Thank you. But we can t. We can t. On the little life raft of Mark only one other person could fit. Just one! And so, thwarted, we inflict pain. That’s what we do. We do not keep each other company. We do not send each other cute text messages. Or, rather, when we do these things, we do them merely to postpone the moment when we ll push these people off, and beat forward, beat forward on our little raft, alone.”
“And I am so alone And I am alone here With the idea of ghosts And the idea of humanity, which is a cruel idea”
“He Smiles and say Ok,Fine ! But he fakes it everytime. He s bright eyes were been through Tear and Dark Nights. No he was not broken cuz it s been a long time But he had to go through that pain every Night.”
“she slammed the door and was gone. I looked at the closed door and at the doorknob and strangely I didn t feel alone.”
“He had escaped the abhorrent taint! He was truly completely alone! He was the only human being in the world!”
“After a certain age, you felt a need not to be alone. It grew stronger, like a radio frequency, until finally it was so powerful that you were forced to do something about it.”
“You’re the one thing I want the most in the world yet the one thing I cannot have. Because to have you completely would be impossible. You can’t go where I walk.”
“Don t be afraid. You are never really alone. Just be yourself. You don t ever have to pretend you are someone else. If you try to do that, then you don t have anything to give the world. Accept and give your gifts with love.”
“And after that until the end, there was no relief from being a girl with chores that she wasn’t being paid for, a girl with no new sandals and a friend who wasn’t a friend but a mistress, and a family that wasn’t but people who owned her and ordered her about, and nothing at all but her pretty breasts and her round bottom and her misbehaving hair to help her feel any different.”
“Septimus has been working too hard - that was all she could say to her own mother. To love makes one solitary, she thought.”
“My sweet Libby. You’re not alone. You’re never alone.”
“Loving life is easy when you are abroad. Where no one knows you and you hold life in your hands all alone, you are more master of yourself than at any other time.”
“I always thought the mirror was a strange gift. Would it not have been better to give me something useful, like silks…or valuable, like jewels? But I think my husband always suspected that he would meet a violent end and leave me to face the world alone. He told me that should there ever come a time when I needed answers, I would find them in this. I tried looking into it a few times, but whenever I saw my reflection, I was reminded of who was no longer standing beside me. It’s a lonely thing…to truly behold yourself.”