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She would not exchange her solitude for anything. Never again to be forced to move to the rhythms of others.

— Tillie Olsen Tell Me a Riddle (1960)

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Alone

More quotes by Tillie Olsen

Sad is the country that requires women's studies, black and ethnic studies.

Kay Bonetti in 1986 article included in Conversations with Grace Paley (1997)

I stand here ironing, and what you asked me moves tormented back and forth with the iron.

"It is a long baptism into the seas of humankind, my daughter. Better immersion than to live untouched."

Tell Me a Riddle (1960)

"But there is more – to rebel against what will not let life be.”

Yonnondio: From the Thirties (1974)

Public libraries were my sustenance and my college.

All Tillie Olsen quotes →

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From now on, everything in life will appear blurry to me. What’s the point of wiping my glasses when my vision has already left me?"

Sanu Sharma

When, musing on companions gone,
We doubly feel ourselves alone.

Walter Scott Marmion (1808)

There's a natural law of karma that vindictive people, who go out of their way to hurt others, will end up broke and alone.

Sylvester Stallone

I live in that solitude which is painful in youth, but delicious in the years of maturity.

Albert Einstein

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Tillie Olsen (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.