John Banville Quotes

All my houses are isolated. Many is the time I just stay home alone.

Little as she was addicted to solitude, there had come to be moments when it seemed a welcome escape from the empty noises of her life.

Perhaps; but I am a difficult person to live with. My difficulty consists in not wanting to live with other people.

I feel better when I am not around people. When I am alone, alone, alone.

I want to be married and I want to be away from people.

Most people have never known solitude.... But there are a few of the other kind who can go back to their rooms anywhere and close the door on the whole world, and feel that they need never emerge.

I became somewhat reclusive during a period of time in the '80s.

Weird people follow you in the streets, you can't sit alone in a restaurant or a cafe and read a book in peace, and I think everybody values those moments of being alone.

I'm so secluded, and I'm so private.

I just want to be left alone.

People have all sorts of expectations which you can't meet. Me, I'm so reclusive I stay away from such things as much as I can. I never go anywhere.

I'd rather be left to my own private life as much as be possible.

Now I no longer wish to be loved, beautiful, happy or successful. I want one thing and one thing only - to be left alone.

I loved being in my own head so much, it was getting harder and harder being with other people.

I also like a lot of silence, and when you're touring, it's constantly noise, all the time, you're surrounded with 15 or 20 people the entire time. I find that tough.

I, who so love a hermit life for a good part of the day, find myself living in public, and almost losing my identity.

I have not a desire but a need for solitude.

I want to be alone ... I just want to be alone.

I can't have a lot of people around me all the time. It really bugs me out that I have that many people. I need to be by myself.

There are no small number of people in this world who, solitary by nature, always try to go back into their shell like a hermit crab or a snail.

People don't always want to be with people. It gets tiring.

I wished I could be alone in my room, with my books, away from these people.

Often whole days pass without my speaking to anyone.

I only said, 'I want to be left alone.'

With me, my main vision for life was to avoid as many people as possible. The less people I saw the better I felt.