Anne Enright Quotes

I don't know myself, what to do, where to go... I lie in the crack of a book for my comfort... it's what the world offers... please leave me alone to dream as I fancy.

If a woman is to know herself, then periods of solitude should be courted, planned, and embraced.

He who looks without, dreams; he who looks within, awakes.

I am alone and my spiritual journey is my experience.' This is the real experience of freedom and independence. Then we begin to see that being alone is a very beautiful thing. Nobody is obstructing our vision. We have complete panoramic vision.

And here in my isolation I can grow stronger. Poetry seems to come of itself, without effort, and I need only let myself dream a little while painting to suggest it.

A man forced to spend his life without ever having the right, without ever finding the time, to shut himself up all alone, no matter where, to think, to reflect, to work, to dream? Ah! my dear boy, a key, the key of a door which one can lock this is happiness, mark you, the only happiness!

Sometimes when we awaken from the bad dream of disowning ourselves, we think that the sojourn to self-discovery is a new one. But it is an ancient quest.

We read books to find out who we are.

I need not to be more with others, but to be more & more deeply, richly alone. Recreating worlds.

I walked into my own book, seeking peace. It was night, and I made a careless movement inside the dream; I turned too brusquely the corner and I bruised myself against my madness.

And that's why i have to go back to so many places there to find myself and constantly examine myself with no witness but the moon and then whistle with joy, ambling over rocks and clods of earth, with no task but to live, with no family but the road.

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.

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

It's in every person's life, around 27 to 29 years old, the stars and the planets align themselves to exactly the way they were when you were born. You're faced with yourself. There's no running away.

A writer needs a life of introspection.

The greatest explorer on this earth never takes voyages as long as those of the man who descends to the depth of his heart.

Filmmaking is incredible introspective. It forces you to sort of examine yourself in new ways.

I looked into that empty bottle and I saw myself.

Nay, be a Columbus to whole new continents and worlds within you, opening new channels, not of trade, but of thought.

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.

For solace, I love a book that opens up my perspective.

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

My solo music started as a way to really look inwards, and to spend time completely by myself with an instrument, without any outside dialogue.

There was something special about being in a strange place, all alone in a mass of people even if you had just screwed up your life, or perhaps especially if you had just screwed up your life.

I know of no other advice than this: Go within and scale the depths of your being from which your very life springs forth.