“Only with her I was not alone, now I am alone with everyone.”

“I am the only person still alive of that rescuing group but I want everyone to know that, while I was coordinating our efforts, we were about twenty to twenty five people. I did not do it alone.”

“Even if I do't have her now, I'll never be alone again, because she exists somewhere”

“But I know the difference. Everyone else is a ghost. I exist here alone, stranded by choice. Deserted.”

“With the knowledge of her aloneness came a rush of self-declaration: I will not be nothing.”

“Everyone has to die. I'm not particularly scared about it. What really frightens me is that if I go before my wife, I will leave her alone, and vice versa. The ideal would be to die together.”

“No one behind, no one ahead.
The path the ancients cleared has closed.
And the other path, everyone's path,
easy and wide, goes nowhere.
I am alone and find my way.”

“[…] Shimamoto had her own little world within her. A world that was for her alone, one I could not enter.”

“Russia cannot be understood with the mind alone,
No ordinary yardstick can span her greatness:
She stands alone, unique –
In Russia, one can only believe.”

“They never discussed it, but both came to understand it as a promise: he would always make sure there was a place for her. She would always be able to say, Someone is coming. I am not alone.”