“Ich kannte kaum jemanden in der Stadt. Niemanden, um genau zu sein. Ein paarmal hatte ich mich verliebt in ein Gesicht, aber ich hatte gelernt, solchen Gefühlen auszuweichen, bevor sie zu einer Bedrohung wurden. Ich hatte einige gescheiterte Beziehungen hinter mir und hatte mich, ohne wirklich einen Entschluss zu fassen, für den Moment mit meinem Alleinsein abgefunden.”
“Iedereen is zo bang om eenzaam te zijn, alsof aids en eenzaamheid de ergste dingen zijn die een mens kunnen overkomen besmettelijke ziekten zijn het aids door bloed en lichaamsvloeistoffen die zich met elkaar vermengen maar eenzaamheid is toch erger daar word je mee besmet door lucht, vuur en water. Kijk, een eenzaam mens! Pas op! Bescherm je! Houd afstand! Als je dichtbij komt kun je worden zoals hij. Of zij. Wie wil er nu eenzaam zijn? Eenzaamheid levert nul punten op. Je moet veel en interesante vrienden om je heen verzamelen. De telefoon moet vaak rinkelen. Je moet populair zijn, je moet bij vrolijke mensen horen.”
“Ngày lễ độc thân Chúng ta hãy cùng nhau tới bờ sông đốt pháo hoa Pháo hoa là người tình bí mật của đêm, là nước mắt nơi khoé mi. Độc thân là tội lỗi do sự mất cân bằng giới tính. Pháo hoa thật đẹp, Độc thân thật mệt, Nếu tôi là một bông pháo hoa Tôi nhất định Sẽ toả sáng rực rỡ một lần ... Nếu tôi là một người độc thân Tôi nhất định Viết một bức thư gửi Quốc hội Cầu xin Quốc hội Hoặc là khống chế sự mất cân bằng giới tính, hoặc là tán thành việc kết hôn đồng giới.”
“I m self-sufficient. I spend a lot of time on my own and I shut off quite easily. When I communicate, I communicate 900 per cent, then I shut off, which scares people sometimes.”
“Make yourself your role model, because people who do not have qualities depend on the qualities of others to shape their own qualities.”
“Even among familiar faces, people often feel invisible and desolate, like an island in cold waters or a shadow apart from the crowd. Be the reason another never feels alone.”
“I inhale loneliness like it is the sweet smell of virgin earth conquered by fiery rain drops. Within me, I m a thousand others.”
“I hope you know that you are not alone, and in those hours when you feel that you are, just know there are other people out there — singing the same melodies of wanderlust, climbing over mountains in the dark, and waking in the night to stare at the moon, thinking of this large world and dreaming — just like you”
“Loneliness wasn t just a state of mind, was it? It was tactile. She could feel it. It was a sixth sense, not in some fanciful play of words, but physically. It hurt... it hurt like phagocytes devouring the white matter of her brain. It was merely that she had no friends. She didn t even have a sanctuary in which she could simply be alone.”
“The Strong Man is Mightiest Alone.”
“Only strong women, and they seem to be rare, can handle a frank and direct woman who doesn t sweet-talk or need others to nerve her. You can identify the easily intimidated because they need a gaggle of like-minded clones to back them up when they feign offense, which is merely a guise for their insecurity.”
“The trouble with space is, there s so much of it. An ocean of blackness without any shore. A neverending nothing. And here, all alone in the million billion miles of midnight, is one solitary moving speck. A fragile parcel filled with sleeping people and their dreams.”
“You know how it is. You feel a little different because other people have two parents, even if they’re divorced. It’s like you grow up knowing that you’re missing something important that everyone else has, but you don’t know exactly what it is. I remember hearing my friends talking about how their fathers wouldn t let them stay out late or didn t like their boyfriends. It used to make me so angry because they didn t even realize what they had. Do you know what I mean?”
“But most of the time, with a contented resignation that comes normally to a man only at the end of a long and busy life, he sat before the keyboard and filled the air with his beloved Bach. Perhaps he was deceiving himself, perhaps this was some merciful trick of the mind but now it seemed to Jan that this what he had always wished to do. His secret ambition had at last dared to emerge into the full light of consciousness. Jan had always been a good pianist, and now he was the finest in the world.”
“We’re better together than we are apart. The American Dream has us looking out for ourselves even at the expense of our neighbors. That shit ain’t true, man.”
“Some journeys, we must take alone. The caterpillar does not judge itself for craving the cocoon. Do not fear the isolated path. There, you will not be lonely. You will meet yourself.”
“Jan had always been a good pianist, and now he was the finest in the world.”