‘Et Tu, Babe’ was born out of my absolute certainty that a writer’s life was solitary and insular, and I was happy with that. I love reading and writing; it’s my whole life.
Human beings are born solitary, but everywhere they are in chains – daisy chains – of interactivity. Social actions are makeshift forms, often courageous, sometimes ridiculous, always strange. And in a way, every social action is a negotiation, a compromise between ‘his,’ ‘her’ or ‘their’ wish and yours.
I’m quite a solitary person. I like being on my own.
As governor, I will work to reform the practice of solitary confinement, which studies and medical and psychological associations say causes negative mental health effects on children, pregnant women and people living with mental illness.
I’m better suited to be a director, I think. I see myself as the general author. I hate the word ‘auteur,’ because it sounds so solitary when filmmaking is anything but solitary.
Solitary trees, if they grow at all, grow strong.
I am a bit of a solitude person – a solitary personality. I like being on my own. I don’t have any major friendships or relationships with people.
But clearly, this is what this is about. It’s about pushing the security bubble out. It’s about rooting out every last guy, so that there’s not even somebody who can fire a single, solitary RPG round from some little qalat out here.
I don’t think you can define how you acquire your imagination any more than you can define why one person has a sense of humor and another doesn’t. But I certainly would lean to the side that says all those solitary hours of daydreaming were a kind of training for poetry.
The writing life is essentially one of solitary confinement – if you can’t deal with this, you needn’t apply.
We as humans, we’re not solitary people, we’re like dogs, we like to live in packs and know about one another. And, if anything, fame is people trying to attain community on a mass scale, because when you become famous wherever you go people know about what you’ve done and what you’re about to do.
The whole course of human history may depend on a change of heart in one solitary and even humble individual – for it is in the solitary mind and soul of the individual that the battle between good and evil is waged and ultimately won or lost.
Writing a sitcom compared with writing a novel is a bit like the difference between going on a big, noisy group holiday compared with a solitary march to the South Pole.
Magic’s quite a solitary pursuit – a thing you can do for hours and hours, getting better and better.
I like to write about the solitary things people do. Humans seem to function best when they’re alone.
I like the busy-ness of office life. What I discovered, to my surprise, is that I love the solitary nature of writing. What happens is that you write when you’re ready.
The interpretation of our reality through patterns not our own, serves only to make us ever more unknown, ever less free, ever more solitary.
Solitary confinement is too terrible a punishment to inflict on any human being, no matter what his crime. Hardened criminals in the men’s prisons, it is said, often beg for the lash instead.
I’ve always loved the seaside and I used to be a fairly keen surfer, but it’s a solitary activity so when my husband and I had children, we bought sit-on-top kayaks. Whenever possible, we escape to the coast or explore rivers with them.
And if, happy in the lot of no created thing, he withdraws into the center of his own unity, his spirit, made one with God, in the solitary darkness of God, who is set above all things, shall surpass them all.
It’s taken me a long time to work out what people are thinking and what they’re expecting. I am naturally solitary, and I’m comfortable with that.
I spent 11 years in isolation units, solitary confinement… in the hardest places for women.
Writing is a solitary existence. Making a movie is controlled chaos – thousands of moving parts and people. Every decision is a compromise. If you’re writing and you don’t like how your character looks or talks, you just fix it. But in a movie, if there’s something you don’t like, that’s tough.
Solitary decisions, no matter how well-founded they may appear to individuals, must belong to the past – along with national, unilateralist action.
A lot of people assume that creating software is purely a solitary activity where you sit in an office with the door closed all day and write lots of code.
Sometimes the solitary voice can be the best one.
The worst vice of the solitary is the worship of his food.
It’s never one solitary event that has changed my life. It’s a bunch of little pieces that built and built up to where I am now.
There is a heavy-ego, solitary model of being an elected leader. We’ve certainly seen that in some other mayors of this city… I have much more of a Movement mentality. It’s much more of what I’m steeped in. I don’t think it is first and foremost about me. It’s about the ideas and the agenda.
I’ve never been a sunny personality. I’ve never been outgoing. I’m a solitary person.
The completely solitary self: that’s where poetry comes from, and it gets isolated by crisis, and those crises are often very intimate also.
The writing process for me is pretty much always the same – it’s a solitary experience.
Writing can be a very solitary business. It’s you sat at a desk typing words into a computer. It can get lonely sometimes and lots of writers live quite isolated lives.
I suppose directing on set is the most fun because it’s a good crack and you feel you’re on the battlefield whereas writing is a fairly solitary undertaking.
I think I meant that, given the circumstances of my childhood, I had the illusion that it’s easier to be alone. To have your relationships be casual and also to pose as a solitary person, because it was more romantic. You know, I was raised on the idea of the ramblin’ man and the loner.
