I'm not saying that there's anything better than mated bliss at its best but I'm saying that living alone is as good in its own way. But we haven't quite given ourselves permission to recognize that.

It is eerie being all but alone in Westminster Abbey. Without the tourists there are only the dead many of them kings and queens. They speak powerfully and put my thoughts into vivid perspective.

As a child I wanted only two things - to be left alone to read my library books and to get away from my provincial hometown and go to London to be a writer. And I always knew that when I got there I wanted to make loads of money.

The thing I like about baseball is that it's one-on-one. You stand up there alone and if you make a mistake it's your mistake. If you hit a home run it's your home run.

As a young man even if I was going to see a play or a film by myself I didn't feel like I was alone. There was something that was unfolding up there that brought me into it. And I recognised that. For those two hours it made me feel like I belonged to something really good.

I'm a grown woman and sometimes I might be a little fat you know? Am I alone there? Not really.

There is no end to the violations committed by children on children quietly talking alone.

There are times when the only access I have to the truest person that I am is when I'm alone and trying to solve a sentence. It's exciting even when it's frustrating even when I can't do it right.

People talk about the conscience but it seems to me one must just bring it up to a certain point and leave it there. You can let your conscience alone if you're nice to the second housemaid.

I thought about how we need to make children feel that there are times in their lives when they need to be alone and quiet and to be able to accept their aloneness.