Francine Prose Quotes

A great reader seldom recognizes his solitude.

I was lonely as a kid. Since I had no siblings, I spent a lot of time by myself and a lot of time reading.

To read is to withdraw.To make oneself unavailable. One would feel easier about it if the pursuit inself were less...selfish.

You live by yourself for a stretch of time and you get to staring at different objects. Sometimes you talk to yourself. You take meals in crowded joints. You develop an intimate relationship with your used Subaru. You slowly but surely become a has-been.

We live as we dream - alone.

But the first lesson reading teaches is how to be alone.

One reads alone, even in another's presence.

Solitude, though it may be silent as light, is like light, the mightiest of agencies; for solitude is essential to man. All men come into this world alone and leave it alone.

I love books and the latest autobiographies. I'm a Gemini and love being with people, but then again, I love my own company, which is when I read most.

I like being alone and I think this movie, as much as it is an investigation of connection and people bonding, I also think it's just as much about loneliness.

Getting close to books, and spending time by myself, I was obliged to think about things I would never have thought about if I was busy romping around with a brother and sister.

The loneliness you get by the sea is personal and alive. It doesn't subdue you and make you feel abject. It's stimulating loneliness.

What good is sitting all alone in your room?

I need, absolutely, to be alone.

All my life, I will continue obstinately to write about love, solitude and passion among the kind of people I know. The rest don't interest me.

The time you feel lonely is the time you most need to be by yourself.

My process is to be by myself when I record. It's quite an emotional performance to pull off when someone else is in the room. I prefer to go away and have my own time with it, bring it in later.

As an only child lacking siblings and playmates, I was alone a great deal of the time. Much of this was spent reading virtually anything I could get my hands on.

There are places and moments in which one is so completely alone that one sees the world entire.

I like melancholy. I like to pretend that I'm alone in the world and I'm just sort of abandoned.

For me, books have always been a way to feel less alone while being alone. Perhaps if I was depressed and isolated, just communicating with these authors through their sentences helped me.

I was never less alone than when by myself.

The task of the solitary man is to be even more solitary.

Our language has wisely sensed the two sides of being alone. It has created the word loneliness to express the pain of being alone. And it has created the word solitude to express the glory of being alone.

You want to read a book? That requires introspection. It requires time away from people and time away from the constant need to communicate and to connect.