“What this means is that the lonelier a person gets, the less adept they become at navigating social currents. Loneliness grows around them, like mould or fur, a prophylactic that inhibits contact, no matter how badly contact is desired. Loneliness is accretive, extending and perpetuation itself. Once it becomes impacted, it is by no means easy to dislodge. This is why I was suddenly so hyper-alert to criticism, and why I felt so perpetually exposed hunching in on myself even as I walked anonymously through the streets, my flip-flops slapping on the ground.”
Source: The Lonely City: Adventures in the Art of Being Alone
“No one wanted him; he was outcast from life's feast.”
Source: Dubliners
“Until only recently, the light that bathed the now-empty apartment had contained the smells of our life there.
The kitchen window. The smiling faces of friends, the fresh greenery of the university campus as a backdrop to Sotaro's profile, my grandmother's voice on the phone when i called her late at night, my warm bed on cold mornings, the sound of my grandmother's slippers in the hallway, the color of the curtains...the tatami mat...the clock on the wall.
All of it. Everything that was no longer there.”
Source: Kitchen
“Love should never draw from the well of loneliness.”
Source: Fortune
“You’ve ruined me,” she repeats, her voice quieting a little as it catches. “You’ve ruined me—you made me wake up. And now I can’t get rid of you.” Her voice surges again as I reach out, curling my hand around her arm, her skin flushed hot under my fingers. “You won’t leave me alone.”
Source: This Shattered World
“This year taught me that my loneliness has more to do with myself than anyone else. The loneliest I will ever be is when I do not have the strength to love myself.”
“Hold me, Gerty, hold me, or I shall think of things.”
Source: The House of Mirth
“To a torn heart uncomforted by human nearness a room may open almost human arms, and the being to whom no four walls mean more than any others, is, at such hours, expatriate everywhere.”
Source: The House of Mirth
“Her arms went around herself, but no matter how tightly she pressed, it came nowhere near a hug.”
Source: A Thousand Beginnings and Endings
“ঐ নিয়ন্তা হাতটির ইশারায়
বসেছি তখন সে-তটে
মৎস্য-শিকারে রত, পশ্চাতে বিরান তেপান্তর
আমার জমি কি নেব না গুছিয়ে আমি অন্ততঃ?
লন্ডন ব্রিজ ভেঙে প’ড়ে যায় ভেঙে প’ড়ে যায় ভেঙে প’ড়ে যায়
সে সেই অনলে লুকাল তাদের পুড়ে যা করবে শুদ্ধ অতঃপর
কবহুঁ ভইব দোয়েল-সমান—দোয়েল দোয়েল বোনটি
ভাঙা কেলায় আকিতেইনের রাজার কুমার কাঁদে
প্রলয় আমার ঠেকিয়েছি এই খোলামকুচির বাঁধে
তথাস্তু, হবে ব্যবস্থা তব। খেপেছে হিয়েরোনিমো পুনরায়।
দত্ত। দয়ধ্বম্। দাম্যত।
শান্তিঃ শান্তিঃ শান্তিঃ”
Source: The Masterpieces of World Literature: 150 Books You Should Read Before You Die: Romeo and Juliet, Emma, Vanity Fair, Middlemarch, Tom Sawyer, Faust, Notre Dame de Paris, Dubliners, Odyssey