The reason that extended solitude seemed so hard to endure was not that we missed others but that we began to wonder if we ourselves were present, because for so long our existence depended upon assurances from them.

—Doris Grumbach in Fifty Days of Solitude

solitude others presence assurance

About Doris Grumbach

Doris M. Grumbach (née Isaac; July 12, 1918 – November 4, 2022) was an American novelist, memoirist, biographer, literary critic, and essayist. She taught at the College of Saint Rose in Albany, New York, the Iowa Writers' Workshop, and American University in Washington, D.C., and was literary editor of The...

More quotations from Doris Grumbach

At the end of his life, Ezra Pound observed to a friend: "Nothing really matters, does it?" Today I understand this. At the end, or close to the end, or closer to the end than the beginning, the value of what we once thought mattered is lost to us. Even survival, once so important, money, food, family, country, accomplishment, recognition, fame, even: Pound was right. He once said to Allen Ginsberg: "At seventy I realized that instead of being a lunatic, I was a moron."

—Doris Grumbach

life survival important

More quotations tagged with “presence”

We are here and it is now. Further than that all human knowledge is moonshine.

—H. L. Mencken

now presence knowledge moonshine

Sometimes when you look in his eyes you get the feeling that someone else is driving.

—David Letterman

Nine-tenths of wisdom is being wise in time.

—Theodore Roosevelt

wisdom presence right now

Remember: no matter where you go, there you are.

—Earl Mac Rauch

presence avoidance tautologies

Reading is socially accepted disassociation. You flip a switch and you're not there anymore. It's better than heroin. More effective and cheaper and legal.

reading presence drugs disassociation

History

14 Nov 2022 Added