In the end all books are written for your friends. The problem after writing One Hundred Years of Solitude was that now I no longer know whom of the millions of readers I am writing for; this upsets and inhibits me. It's like a million eyes are looking at you and you don't really know what they think.

Make an island of yourself,
make yourself your refuge;
there is no other refuge.
Make truth your island,
make truth your refuge;
there is no other refuge.

Living unloved, to die unknown,
Unwept, untended and alone.

I had put out the candles and locked the door of the room and that of the courtyard without doing anything. Another fire would not have done any good.

No matter where you are, you're always a bit on your own, always an outsider.

The primary distinction of the artist is that he must actively cultivate that state which most men, necessarily, must avoid: the state of being alone.

If you dwell with unaware people, you will be cold,
But if you dwell with aware ones, you will be a true man
Go, and build your hermit cell inside a furnace, like gold
If you go out of the furnace, you will be frozen solid

Who sits alone by the bright window?
My shadow and I, only we two.
But the lamp burns out, there is darkness.
Even my shadow forsakes me.
Alas, alas!
I am forlorn!

Man goes into the noisy crowd to drown his own clamour of silence.