Solitude shows us what should be; society shows us what we are.

It's hard to spend years at a time working in total solitude with no reality-check.

As I've gotten older I've occasionally found myself nostalgic for earlier periods of solitude, though I realize that's also likely a false nostalgia, as I know there was nothing I wanted more during those periods than to not be alone, whatever that means.

It is a mistake to fancy that horror is associated inextricably with darkness, silence, and solitude.

Solitude can be used well by very few people. They who do must have a knowledge of the world to see the foolishness of it, and enough virtue to despise all the vanity.

'One Hundred Years of Solitude' is a masterpiece because it is an episodic novel that has a rigorous form - an unprecedented combination. From the very beginning we know the town of Macondo will endure only a century, so there is a limit to the length of the narrative.

It is only in solitude that I ever find my own core.

I owe my solitude to other people.

Solitude is un-American.

I love writing, and I love the solitude of the writing, in that you're just sitting there creating something from nothing, or a new story for characters you love and care about.

How would Jonathan Lethem have obtained such a stellar endorsement for 'The Fortress of Solitude' from Michael Chabon, if not for the years they spent ghostwriting 'MAD' magazine fold-ins together?

Extraordinary things happen in solitude.

I really do work in solitude.

I hold this to be the highest task for a bond between two people: that each protects the solitude of the other.

Solitude is better than the society of evil persons.

Solitude sharpens awareness of small pleasures otherwise lost.

A great reader seldom recognizes his solitude.

'One Hundred Years of Solitude' convinced me to drop out of Harvard graduate school. The novel reminded me of everything my Ph.D. program was trying to make me forget. Thank you, Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

Look at Austen. In her novels, you get a dance, followed by an encounter, followed by a letter, then a period of solitude. No flashbacks and no backstory. Let's have no more back story!

But the delights of solitude don't only consist of dreaming. Next in enjoyment, I think, comes planning.