“When walking alone on the path of discovery, have faith that you are illuminating the way for others to follow.”
“If you don’t fit into the ideal box of normal or what’s acceptably different, then you’re just another patient of missed diagnoses that fill the pockets of every multi-million dollar pharmaceutical company.”
“When I am all alone Envy me most, Then my thoughts flutter round me In a glimmering host; Some dressed in silver, Some dressed in white, Each like a taper Blossoming light; Most of them merry, Some of them grave, Each of them lithe As willows that wave; Some bearing violets, Some bearing bay, One with a burning rose Hidden away– When I am all alone Envy me then, For I have better friends Than women and men.”
“It looked like they were on their own, whether they liked it or not.”
“Il dolore più sincero si vive soltanto da soli.”
“They do not understand, therefore I shut every one out.”
“Where was he? Somewhere in there he lost the first phase of youth, like the first phase of a rocket; it had fallen, depleted, behind him. And here was the second. And last. He swore he would not give it to anyone; he would enjoy it. He would enjoy it alone. But: how to live alone and yet not be alone?”
“Why do I feel this alone? Basically, because I’ve always been alone. I’ve always been alone. And alone I’ll be. It’s about time I become aware of it and never forget it.”
“5.57am and I’m finishing the last poem to the taste of the last cigarette. Smoke in my lungs, poetry on the paper. Inhale, exhale, it doesn’t get much easier.”
“Why this endless need for a man as a mirror? To see the Arthur Less reflected there? He is grieving, for sure—the loss of his lover, his career, his novel, his youth—so why not cover the mirrors, rend the fabric over his heart, and just let himself mourn? Perhaps he should try alone.”
“I don t want to hide. I don t want to be alone. I don t want to wander off into the desert in shame and die and become vulture food. Or end up keeling over just because I m too self-conscious to leave the house. Cause of Death: Unnecessary Loneliness.”
“When I am all alone, I often, very often, say your name aloud…”
“Because in our pain we must find each other – mirror to mirror the grace of our shared humanity, the stunningly broken beauty of our shared grief. And you can let your grief see my grief and let our tears mingle into some kind of healing alchemy, and you’ll know what i know. That we are never alone. I promise. You and me? We are never, ever alone.”
“Loneliness is the endless disease that eats at our soul.”
“There is no shame in feeling broken. In seeking help. In searching for healing. Sometimes it is the breaking that leads us to the source of our own becoming. But we need not suffer alone. When you feel trauma or shame, if you feel depressed or alone – speak your truth, ask for help, insist without ceasing on the support that you need. You are not alone. As long as I am on this earth and forever after – you will never be alone.”
“By all means use some time to be alone.”
“There was no one at all for her. No one in the world who cared whether she lived or died. Sometimes the horror of that thought threatened to overwhelm her and plunge her down into a bottomless darkness from which there would be no return. If no one in the entire world cared about you, did you really exist at all?”