Michael Finkel

“He never bothered listening to sports; the bored him, every one of them.”

— Michael Finkel

Extraordinary things happen in solitude.

— Michael Finkel

“Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders;”

— Michael Finkel

“If you like solitude, you're never alone.”

— Michael Finkel

I am a writer. It's like a third arm to me.

— Michael Finkel

There's a difference between lying and not being straight.

— Michael Finkel

“The world is a confusing place, meaningful and meaningless at once.”

— Michael Finkel

Frightening things happen in solitude.

— Michael Finkel

I never do formal interviews. I don't use a tape recorder. I take notes but occasionally.

— Michael Finkel

“Two of life’s greatest pleasures, by my reckoning, are camping and reading—most gloriously, both at once.”

— Michael Finkel

“The life inside a book always felt welcoming to Knight. It pressed no demands on him, while the world of human interactions…

— Michael Finkel

“Those with less become content,” says the Tao, “those with more become confused.” The”

— Michael Finkel

“Knight's disdain for Thoreau was bottomless - 'he had no deep insight into nature'...”

— Michael Finkel

Not to get too maudlin, but I think all mistakes are tests for one's mettle.

— Michael Finkel

“Lao-tzu’s Tao Te Ching (I recommend the Red Pine translation), and started swimming from there. Excellent”

— Michael Finkel

I'd lied many times: to bolster my credentials, to elicit sympathy, to make myself appear less ordinary.

— Michael Finkel

There have always been hermits: people who want to get away from other humans. Literally, some of the first extant books and…

— Michael Finkel

“He has seen the bottomless nonsense of our world and has decided, like most of us, to simply try to tolerate it.…

— Michael Finkel

“Thomas Merton, the Trappist monk, wrote that nothing can be expressed about solitude “that has not already been said better by the…

— Michael Finkel

My advice for telling someone else's story is to try not to consciously bend the story in any particular direction - to…

— Michael Finkel

“The fact that Longo himself was a skilled liar seemed to engender in him an ancillary condition in which he was distrustful…

— Michael Finkel

Modern life, especially with young children, so often seems like a mad rush... We so rarely take time to just do nothing…

— Michael Finkel

I spent most of my youth in Montana, where there are long, cold winters, but Maine has the coldest winters you could…

— Michael Finkel

As a writer, I spend a lot of time alone, and I like it. I'm also a long-distance runner, and I love…

— Michael Finkel

“One’s desire to be alone, biologists have found, is partially genetic and to some degree measurable. If you have low levels of…

— Michael Finkel

“Perceptive and valuable personal explorations of time alone include A Book of Silence by Sara Maitland, Party of One by Anneli Rufus,…

— Michael Finkel

“The first great literary work about solitude, the Tao Te Ching, was written in ancient China, likely in the sixth century B.C.,…

— Michael Finkel

“Not for a moment did he consider keeping a journal. He would never allow anyone to read his private thoughts; therefore, he…

— Michael Finkel

“With his release imminent, Knight seems more unsettled than ever. He scratches furiously at his knees. Jail, he's realized, might not be…

— Michael Finkel

“In eighteenth-century England, a fad swept the upper class. Several families felt their estate needed a hermit, and advertisements were placed in…

— Michael Finkel

“I become a transparent eyeball,” wrote Ralph Waldo Emerson in “Nature.” “I am nothing; I see all.” Lord Byron called it “the…

— Michael Finkel

“Soon he essentially stopped talking. "I am retreating into silence as a defensive mode," he mentioned. Eventually, he was down to uttering…

— Michael Finkel

“His chief form of entertainment was reading. The last moments he was in a cabin were usually spent scanning bookshelves and nightstands.…

— Michael Finkel

“Modern life seems set up so that we can avoid loneliness at all costs, but maybe it's worthwhile to face it occasionally.…

— Michael Finkel

“In 1988, a cave explorer named Véronique Le Guen volunteered for an extreme experiment: to live alone in an underground cavern in…

— Michael Finkel

“The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, by William Shirer.”

— Michael Finkel

“the true solitary does not seek himself, but loses himself.”

— Michael Finkel

I committed pretty much the worst thing you can do, which is defraud the readers.

— Michael Finkel

“life isn’t about searching endlessly to find what’s missing; it’s about learning to live with the missing parts.”

— Michael Finkel

“Everyone dreams of dropping out of the world once in a while. Then you get in the car and drive back home.”

— Michael Finkel