I was court-martial in my absence, and sentenced to death in my absence, so I said they could shoot me read more

I was court-martial in my absence, and sentenced to death in my absence, so I said they could shoot me in my absence.

How glorious it is -- and also how painful -- to be an exception.

How glorious it is -- and also how painful -- to be an exception.

No matter how close to yours another's steps have grown, in the end there is one dance you'll do alone.

No matter how close to yours another's steps have grown, in the end there is one dance you'll do alone.

Solitude is the profoundest fact of the human condition. Man is the only being who knows he is alone. - read more

Solitude is the profoundest fact of the human condition. Man is the only being who knows he is alone. - The Labyrinth of Solitude, 1950.

Sometimes I need what only you can provide, your absence.

Sometimes I need what only you can provide, your absence.

Regrets are idle; yet history is one long regret. Everything might have turned out so differently. - My Summer in read more

Regrets are idle; yet history is one long regret. Everything might have turned out so differently. - My Summer in a Garden.

Oh to have a lodge in some vast wilderness. Where rumors of oppression and deceit, of unsuccessful and successful wars read more

Oh to have a lodge in some vast wilderness. Where rumors of oppression and deceit, of unsuccessful and successful wars may never reach me anymore.

Solitude is the playfield of Satan. - Pale Fire, 1962.

Solitude is the playfield of Satan. - Pale Fire, 1962.

The heart may think it knows better: the senses know that absence blots people out. We really have no absent read more

The heart may think it knows better: the senses know that absence blots people out. We really have no absent friends. The friend becomes a traitor by breaking, however unwillingly or sadly, out of our own zone: a hard judgment is passed on him, for all the pleas of the heart.