Michael Finkel

“Modern life seems set up so that we can avoid loneliness at all costs, but maybe it's worthwhile to face it occasionally. The further we push aloneness away, the less are we able to cope with it, and the more terrifying it gets. Some philosophers believe that loneliness is the only true feeling there is. We live orphaned on a tiny rock in the immense vastness of space, with no hint of even the simplest form of life anywhere around us for billions upon billions of miles, alone beyond all imagining. We live locked in our own heads and can never entirely know the experience of another person. Even if we're surrounded by family and friends, we journey into death completely alone.”

“Extraordinary things happen in solitude.”

“America might be the land of second chances, but it ain't the land of third chances.”

“I'd lied many times: to bolster my credentials, to elicit sympathy, to make myself appear less ordinary.”

“The only book Knight didn't steal was the one he most often saw. 'I had no need for a Bible,' he said.”

“Frightening things happen in solitude.”

“I am guaranteeing you that if you see my byline on a story, it's going to be the cleanest story you've ever read.”

“As a writer, I spend a lot of time alone, and I like it. I'm also a long-distance runner, and I love long, solo road trips; I can drive literally all night, drinking coffee, and not even listening to the radio, just strangely content sifting through the random thoughts in my own head.”

“I'm not used to seeing people's faces. There's too much information there. Aren't you aware of it? Too much, too fast.”