“Intimacy between people requires closeness as well as distance. It is like dancing. Sometimes we are very close, touching each other or holding each other; sometimes we move away from each other and let the space between us become an area where we can freely move. To keep the right balance between closeness and distance requires hard work, especially since the needs of the partners may be quite different at a given moment. One might desire closeness while the other wants distance. One might want to be held while the other looks for independence. A perfect balance seldom occurs, but the honest and open search for that balance can give birth to a beautiful dance, worthy to behold.”
“I know that the night is not the same as the day: that all things are different, that the things of the night cannot be explained in the day, because they do not then exist, and the night can be a dreadful time for lonely people once their loneliness has started.”
“Isolation is a way to know ourselves.”
“I am here alone for the first time in weeks, to take up my real life again at last. That is what is strange - that friends, even passionate love, are not my real life unless there is time alone in which to explore and to discover what is happening or has happened. Without the interruptions, nourishing and maddening, this life would become arid. Yet I taste it fully only when I am alone here and the house and I resume old conversations .”
“The threat of rain appears to have nothing to do with Joao Elvas s desire to be alone, and one must not forget that, strange as it may seem, some men can spend their entire life alone and enjoy solitude, especially if it is raining and their crust is hard.”
“This sometimes happened: from time to time, Dantès, driven out of solitude into the world, felt an imperative need for solitude. And what solitude is more vast and more poetic than that of a ship sailing alone on the sea, in the darkness of night and the silence of infinity, under the eye of the Lord?”
“But we- she glanced at him as if to ascertain his position, we see each other only now and then- Like lights in a storm- In the midst of a hurricane, she concluded, as the window shook beneath the pressure of the wind.”
“True happiness is impossible without solitude. The fallen angel probably betrayed God because he longed for solitude, which angels do not know.”
“Kereta datang. Melompat malas. Mencari kursi dalam gerbong yang nyaris kosong. Senja mulai tua, mendung menambah tua cuaca. Gerimis turun di luar. Dari jendela muram itu bayang-bayang berkelebat. Kota-kota mulai bersolek dengan lampu. Hujan menderas di luar. Kereta semakin cepat. Naik kereta api untuk bisa menangis sendirian. Tangisan sepi.”
“Fame is an island, and right before the castaway, the getaway of being known without being known.”
“The doctors are all agreed that I am suffering from want of society. Was never a case like it. First, I did not know that I was suffering at all. Secondly, as an Irishman might say, I had thought it was indigestion of the society I got.”
“Lonely is a troubling word and not one to be tossed around lightly. It makes people uncomfortable, summoning up as it does all kinds of harsher adjectives, like sad or strange . I have always been well liked, I think, always well regarded and respected, but having few enemies is not the same as having many friends, and there was no denying that I was, if not lonely , more solitary than I d hoped to be at that time.”
“A man with nothing to lend should refrain from borrowing.”
“We take our fetters with us; our freedom is not total: we still turn our gaze towards the things we have left behind; our imagination is full of them.”
“Difficile è credere in una cosa quando si è soli, e non se ne può parlare con alcuno. Proprio in quel tempo Drogo si accorse come gli uomini, per quanto possano volersi bene, rimangono sempre lontani; che se uno soffre il dolore è completamente suo, nessun altro può prenderne su di sé una minima parte; che se uno soffre, gli altri per questo non sentono male, anche se l amore è grande, e questo provoca la solitudine della vita.”
“Seules mes pensées sentimentales existent quand je suis avec elle. C est un peu nébuleux, et triste, comme si j étais content, bien au chaud, mais avec une certaine envie de pleurer.”
“Il était seul, et quand la solitude nous préoccupe, on devient capable de faire n importe quelle bassesse pour s assurer une compagnie, une oreille et des yeux attentifs. Je parle d eux, les autres, pas de moi.”