When women hold off from marrying men, we call it independence. When men hold off from marrying women, we call it fear of commitment.

At the evident risk of seeming ridiculous, I want to begin by saying that I have tried for much of my life to write as if I was composing my sentences to be read posthumously. I hope this isn't too melodramatic or self-centred a way of saying that I attempt to write as if I did not care what reviewers said, what peers thought, or what prevailing opinions may be.

If we thought more for ourselves we would have very many more bad books and very many more good ones.

You were born together, and together you shall be for evermore...But let there be spaces in your togetherness...Love one another, but make not a bond of love. Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls. Fill each other's cup but drink not from one cup. Give one another of your bread but eat not of the same loaf. Sing and dance together and be joyous, but let each one of you be alone, Even as the strings of a lute are alone though they quiver with the same music.

The greatest thing in the world is to know how to belong to oneself.

Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice., 2005]

We need to help people to discover the true meaning of love. Love is generally confused with dependence. Those of us who have grown in true love know that we can love only in proportion to our capacity for independence.

Then, one stupid person, no different from any other stupid person, wanders into your stupid life...you give them a piece of you. They don't ask for it. They do something dumb one day like kiss you or smile at you, and then your life isn't your own anymore.

A terrible independence opens the door to destructive power of sin

If you can think independently, you are the master of this universe.

Independence is for the very few; it is a privilege of the strong.

Teenagers crave independence. The more self-suf-ficient we make them feel, the less hostile they are toward us.

The desire for freedom and independence becomes more of an issue for many men in relationships, whereas interdependence and connection become more of an issue for many women.

Injustice in the end produces independence.

Independence didn't have to be exile.

People have only as much liberty as they have the intelligence to want and the courage to take.

Independence? That's middle-class blasphemy. We are all dependent on one another, every soul of us on earth.

There are worse places to be than on your own.

I too am a government.

The true charter of liberty is independence, maintained by force.