The power that is supported by force alone will have cause often to tremble.

Largely this is a class thing - writers tend to be cosseted little middle-class kiddies who think that the world owes them a royalty cheque. But just doing it - being in your room for years on end locked in your head alone with invented ghosts - it weakens and softens the body. And I know I can't just live in my head.

I mean one of the things about being alone is that you've no people to define yourself off I mean people are like all-round mirrors because let's face it we don't often see ourselves all round in a mirror anyway do we.

It is said that man doesn't live by bread alone. Sometimes this is unfortunate because people who cannot live by bread alone too often kill other people in consequence of the fights they get into.

The attempt to devote oneself to literature alone is a most deceptive thing and often paradoxically it is literature that suffers for it.

We cannot remember too often that when we observe nature and especially the ordering of nature it is always ourselves alone we are observing.

I like the idea of being alone. I like the idea of often being alone in all aspects of my life. I like to feel lonely. I like to need things.

Often we can help each other most by leaving each other alone at other times we need the hand-grasp and the word of cheer.

I paint self-portraits because I am so often alone because I am the person I know best.

I've also seen that great men are often lonely. This is understandable because they have built such high standards for themselves that they often feel alone. But that same loneliness is part of their ability to create.

I have to be alone very often. I'd be quite happy if I spent from Saturday night until Monday morning alone in my apartment. That's how I refuel.

It's often just enough to be with someone. I don't need to touch them. Not even talk. A feeling passes between you both. You're not alone.

Think back to yourself at age 18. I know I was mighty different than the Patti I am today. As we grow up we grow out of our haircuts our apartments and - often times - our romantic decisions.

While I had often said that I wanted to die in bed what I really meant was that in my old age I wanted to be stepped on by an elephant while making love.

About the time I turned 50 I experienced the profound biological change that often accompanies women at that age. Also I put two kids in college and lost both of my parents so I'm no longer somebody's daughter.

I would often find myself at the age of 21 at midnight running down a dark street on my own with 10 men chasing me. And the fact they had cameras in their hands made that legal.

It is well for the world that in most of us by the age of thirty the character has set like plaster and will never soften again.