Ali Smith Quotes

Isolation doesn't bother me at all. It gives me a sense of security.

Well, father, in the shipwreck of life, for life is an eternal shipwreck of our hopes, I cast into the sea my useless encumbrance, that is all, and I remain with my own will, disposed to live perfectly alone, and, consequently, perfectly free. (Eugenie to her father)

Single's fun - you don't have to check in with your girl, but it's not easy. I do get lonely.

It's amazing living alone. I'm very lucky. It's like a refuge.

He who lives in solitude may make his own laws.

The liberty to live for self alone becomes in time a weary bondage.

I would rather sit on a pumpkin and have it all to myself, than be crowded on a velvet cushion.

I'll leave my house if I need to. Otherwise I'm super comfortable in my own space, in my own company.

People should just let me be.

I like my space.

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

It's such a blessing having no family.

Once I turned eighteen, I could cut myself off from everyone and finally get what I wanted, which was to be on my own, once and for all. ~Ruby, pg 38

Off fall the wife, the mother, the lover, the teacher, and the violent artist takes over. I am I alone. I belong to no one but myself. I mate with no one but the spirit. I own no land, have no kin, no friend or enemy. I have no road but this one.

...if you're alone nothing bad can happen to you.

If you cannot live alone, you were born a slave.

I don't want to have to start being unselfish again. The great thing about being on your own is you do what you damned well like.

I am a free man―and I need my freedom. I need to be alone. I need to ponder my shame and my despair in seclusion; I need the sunshine and the paving stones of the streets without companions, without conversation, face to face with myself, with only the music of my heart for company. What do you want of me? When I have something to say, I put it in print. When I have something to give, I give it. Your prying curiosity turns my stomach! Your compliments humiliate me! Your tea poisons me! I owe nothing to any one. I would be responsible to God alone―if He existed!

The price for independence is often isolation and solitude.

She would not exchange her solitude for anything. Never again to be forced to move to the rhythms of others.

When you're alone, it's easier," she said a little wistfully. "You can do what you want. You don't have to go home.

To remain alone did not seem to me a terrible fate, no worse than being falsely joined to another person.

It is only when a man is alone that he is really free.

But I think there's something wonderful and extraordinary about climbing on your own and just that kind of relationship to the environment. I'm very addicted to the mountains. You know, so, I do like that solitude.

I've always been a loner, and I've spent most of my life as a single person.