Abraham Joshua Heschel Quotes

The one happiness is to shut one's door upon a little room, with a table before one, and to create; to create life in that isolation from life.

The first thing that distinguishes a writer is that he is most alive when alone.

It has been said that no great work in literature or in science was ever wrought by a man who did not love solitude. We may lay it down as an elemental principle of religion, that no large growth in holiness was ever gained by one who did not take time to be often long alone with God.

Some of my poems indicate that I am writing while living alone after a split with a woman, and I've had many splits with women. I need solitude more often when I'm not writing than when I am.

I loved taking off. In my own house, I seemed to be often looking for a place to hide - sometimes from the children but more often from the jobs to be done and the phone ringing and the sociability of the neighborhood. I wanted to hide so that I could get busy at my real work, which was a sort of wooing of distant parts of myself.

The primary distinction of the artist is that he must actively cultivate that state which most men, necessarily, must avoid; the state of being alone.

I've always used poetry to explain myself to myself. These things just sat in my psyche and then came out.

It is well to be alone. It fertilizes the creative impulse.

Solitude is creativity's best friend, and solitude is refreshment for our souls.

Creating is a lonely thing in a lot of ways.

Everyone needs solitude, especially a person who is used to thinking about what she experiences. Solitude is very important in my work as a mode of inspiration, but isolation is not good in this respect. I am not writing poetry about isolation.

The story of 'Lasers' is my story. I didn't have to look too far to get subject matter for this record; it was stuff that was happening to me.

I'm really honored that Bon Iver gives me a platform to do whatever I want, but there's only so much time you can spend digging through yourself before you become insular. I'm not in a hurry to go back to that temperature.

I love people, and I love to be with people and to make music with people, but my natural state is to revert back to being by myself in my house, which is cool because that's where I practice and write and listen and study.

All good writing comes out of aloneness.

Writing is a tribute to solitude. It is choosing introversion over extroversion, lonely hours/days/weeks/years over fun and sociability.

My 'aloneness' is extremely valuable to me.

When I got into music, that was another way to be by myself.

I find it quite useful to be alone when I'm making music, but also in general, in life.

A lot of my music is inspired by personal situations in my life.

We are always in our own company.

How many of you are creative? I don't know, but for me, when you make a bunch of things over time and then you keep them... you forget. I look through my sketchbooks and I'm an audience for myself.

Look, then, into thine heart, and write!

When you find yourself alone, or in a transition, you dream more. These are also the times when you read books.

Once more I realize that solitude is my element, and the reason is that extreme awareness of other people (all naturally solitary people must feel this) precludes awareness of one's self, so after a while the self no longer knows that it exists.