The Art of Solitude

and he has a new book called The Art of Solitude.

Well, the book I've just published is called The Art of Solitude, published by Yale and it's a project I've been working on for the last five years or so.

Obviously the new book is art of solitude but if you want to mention any old books or web presence or speeches you're going to give, anything you want to plug, well we have you on the microphone.

Solitude is not to be found in a forest. It's not to be found in a deep state of formless meditation. It's to be found by learning to dwell in your body and your senses.

Solitude, the practice of solitude is the practice of creating an inward autonomy within ourselves, an inward freedom from the power of these overwhelming thoughts and emotions.

The greatest thing in the world is to know how to be yourself.

We have a soul that can turn in on itself. It can keep itself company. It has the means to attack and defend, to give and receive.

It is never my custom to use words lightly. If 27 years in prison have done anything to us, it was to use the silence of solitude to make us understand how precious words are and how real speech is in its impact on the way people live and die.

I picked up, well I guess I got an advanced copy of The Art of Solitude from the publisher and I just, I really just, I was using it as my kind of morning contemplative reading for the last few months.

Solitude is not to be found in a forest. It's not to be found in a deep state of formless meditation. It's to be found by learning to dwell in your body and your senses.