Civil war is a national crisis and also a private trauma: We suffer it collectively and in isolation.

You're going through the horror of it, you're going through the isolation of it but you're being empowered by reminding yourself that you're connected to everybody else.

The smallest wound or pain of the ego is examined under a microscope as if it were of eternal importance. The artist considers his isolation, his subjectivity, his individualism almost holy.

The worst cruelty that can be inflicted on a human being is isolation.

Providing a writer isn't put off by conventions - and some are - attending them can be a nice break from the necessary isolation of writing.

I'm always in the right headspace! I live pretty much in isolation, so there are really no distractions. That's not a manufactured thing; it's just the way I live.

Solitude, isolation, are painful things and beyond human endurance.

Policymakers, elected and unelected, need to be ever-mindful that the U.S. economy does not exist in isolation.

Some writers - most, I suspect - write in isolation. I think I'd always found that quite difficult.

So many writers grew up in tortured isolation, in revolt against their families. I and my sister were in a house where writing was considered the worthiest thing you could try to do.

National isolation breeds national neurosis.

The E.U. initially decided to end the isolation of Turkish Cyprus, to balance the accession of Cyprus. But the E.U. has not carried through on its promise.

I think in the case of horror, it's a chance to confront a lot of your worse fears and those fears usually have to do, ironically, with powerlessness and isolation.

The idea of a mentally ill vice president who suffers in complete isolation was obviously sparked by the behaviors I witnessed by Sarah Palin. What if somebody who was ill-equipped for the office were to ascend to the presidency or vice presidency? What would they do? How long would it take for people to figure it out?

As a writer, you live in such isolation. It's hard to imagine your book has a life beyond you.

If there's a silver bullet in the battle to recapture Albany, it is the re-engagement of our citizens. This capital has become a physical metaphor for the isolation and alienation of our people.

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

No matter how you look at it, one person cannot be evaluated and paid in isolation of budgets.

Isolationism is over.

If isolation tempers the strong, it is the stumbling-block of the uncertain.