“The trouble is not really in being alone, it's being lonely. One can be lonely in the midst of a crowd, don't you think?”

“Have you ever been lonely? No, neither have I. Solitary, yes. Alone, certainly. But lonely means minding about being on your own. I've never minded about it.”

Sebastian Faulks book Engleby

“To walk home alone at night is a disaster, in novels. Some girls confuse the state of being in love and being lonely, and think they are the former when in fact they are the latter; in love with everyone and no one, just because they are without a man.”

Halldór Laxness book The Atom Station

“Love is a self-manifested notion depending on how lonely you are - so if you're really attracted to someone, and you're really lonely, I think you can fall in love in an instant. It's all about where you're at.”

Kiefer Sutherland (1966) English-Canadian actor, director, producer, voice actor

“Being free always involves being lonely.”

Kóbó Abe (1924–1993) Japanese writer, playwright, photographer and inventor

“There's a big difference between being alone and being lonely. And I'm guessing that once you've discovered this distinction you can't go back to solitary confinement without serious emotional repercussions.”

Tiffanie DeBartolo (1970) American writer

“For it must be very lonely being dead.”

Diane Setterfield book The Thirteenth Tale

“Being an intellectual creates a lot of questions and no answers. You can fill your life up with ideas and still go home lonely. All you really have that really matters are feelings. That's what music is to me.”

Janis Joplin (1943–1970) American singer and songwriter

“In loneliness, the lonely one eats himself; in a crowd, the many eat him. Now choose.”

Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German philosopher, poet, composer, cultural critic, and classical philologist

“It was at that moment he realized that his spirit was truly human once more. For he no longer remembered how to be alone without being lonely.”

Neal Shusterman book Everwild