“A stele was erected as a souvenir. It was written: the mountain is no longer alone; the trees support it. (Une stèle fut érigée en souvenir. Y était inscrit : la montagne n est plus seule; les arbres la soutiennent.)”
“More than anything else, I wanted not to be alone — yet all my actions guaranteed I’d be lonely. Like wearing a vest of explosives when you’re coming in for a hug, insatiable need is a form of sabotage.”
“A man is never completely alone in this world. At the worst, he has the company of a boy, a youth, and by and by a grown man - the one he used to be.”
“You are alone. You learn how to walk like a man alone. To stroll, to dawdle. To see without looking, to look without seeing. You learn the art of transparency, immobility, inexistence.You learn how to be a shadow and how to look at men as if they were stones.”
“Being alone has a power over me that never fails. My interior dissolves and is ready to release what lies deeper.”
“You can t scare a man who has lost everything.”
“I think our whole generation suffers from a morbid fear of being alone.”
“Il piacere della notifica dura il tempo della sua ricezione, poi ne servono altre e altre ancora, o ti senti più solo di prima.”
“When you are with somebody who hides being seen with you, you are worse than alone. Even you are not with you.”
“But in the midst of the freedom he had attained Harry suddenly became aware that his freedom was a death and that he stood alone. The world in an uncanny fashion left him in peace. Other men concerned him no longer. He was not even concerned about himself. He began to suffocate slowly in the more and more rarefied atmosphere of remoteness and solitude. For now it was his wish no longer, nor his aim, to be alone and independent, but rather his lot and his sentence. The magic wish had been fulfilled and could not be cancelled, and it was no good now to open his arms with longing and goodwill to welcome the bonds of society. People left him alone now. It was not, however, that he was an object of hatred and repugnance. On the contrary, he had many friends. A great many people liked him. But it was no more than sympathy and friendliness. He received invitations, presents, pleasant letters; but no more. No one came near to him. There was on link left, and no one could have had any part in his life even had anyone wished it. For the air of lonely man surrounded him now, a still atmosphere in which the world around him slipped away, leaving him incapable of relationship, an atmosphere against which neither will nor longing availed.”
“But no one is strong at night; no one can fight alone; no success is achieved without a helper.”
“Oh, but childhoods go by so quickly too, we have them for such a short time - six years? Ten at the most? We are so alone in this life.”
“I don t mean to deny a feeling of solitude. It is there, reinforced by the fact that radio contact with the Earth abruptly cuts off at the instant I disappear behind the moon, I am alone now, truly alone, and absolutely isolated from any known life. I am it. If a count were taken, the score would be three billion plus two over on the other side of the moon, and one plus God knows what on this side.”
“Ten grand in your pocket. But it won’t last. Not at this rate. Jobless and boozing. Fat and fucked. Not unless Peter says yes- Peter Taylor. The only friend you’ve ever had. Peter Taylor.”
“A dream you dream together is a dangerous thing. A dream you dream alone is excellent.”
“Its only your attitude which decides about your respect and image.”
“Be sincere with yourself! Because its only your shadow which will never let you alone.”