'You're not alone' can be a great thing to hear when you're feeling quite despondent and alienated from the world and yourself. But if you're someone who's been completely overwrought with the intensity of life and the world, getting some space to be alone can be one of the things you crave most.
Some of my foster families used to send me to the movies to get me out of the house and there I'd sit all day and way into the night. Up in front, there with the screen so big, a little kid all alone, and I loved it. I loved anything that moved up there and I didn't miss anything that happened and there was no popcorn either.
I never said, 'I want to be alone.' I only said, 'I want to be left alone.' There is all the difference.
The difference between the denominational system and the public school system is all the difference between bolstering them up on the one hand and letting them alone of the other.
I believe that if it were possible to scrap the whole of existing literature, all writers would find themselves inevitably producing something very close to SF ... No other form of fiction has the vocabulary of ideas and images to deal with the present, let alone the future.
Tennis is a hard sport. There is a lot of competition all year and you play alone.
When I hear about something allegedly happening in the world I always ask: 'Who is doing it?' Trends break out because they're based on real demographics, like there being fewer nuclear families or more people living alone. If 10 people in Shoreditch are doing it, it's a 10-minute fad.
Free trade will go a long way toward alleviating poverty in Central America. Yet trade alone is not enough.
The best thing to do is just leave them alone. Alligators want to be away from you just as much as you want to be away from them.
We allow our ignorance to prevail upon us and make us think we can survive alone, alone in patches, alone in groups, alone in races, even alone in genders.
I know that I came into the world with what I call 'big dharma' - with a blueprint to teach self-reliance and a positive loving approach to large numbers of people all over the globe. I am ever so grateful for the circumstances of my life that allowed me to be pretty much left alone and to develop as I was so intended in this incarnation.
Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not: nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not: the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.
Almost everyone who reaches a plateau where he or she is happy and comfortable says it's because of finding balance between work, relaxation, exercise, socialising and family - plus some alone time to do something contemplative, creative, or educational.
One sign of a great actor is when he can be alone by himself on the screen, doing almost nothing, and producing one of a film's defining moments.
Associate with men of good quality if you esteem your own reputation; for it is better to be alone than in bad company.
A man can be himself only so long as he is alone, and if he does not love solitude, he will not love freedom, for it is only when he is alone that he is really free.
It's better to be unhappy alone than unhappy with someone - so far.
The only real progress lies in learning to be wrong all alone.
It is strange to be known so universally and yet to be so lonely.
We are rarely proud when we are alone.