One, No One, and One Hundred Thousand

by Luigi Pirandello

The thought, rather, remained firmly planted, that I was not for others what up to then I had inwardly pictured myself as being.

Solitude is never where you are; it is always where you are not, and is only possible with a stranger present;

Look rather and see if it now seems to you so certain that tomorrow you will be what you assume you are today.

all because I had wanted to prove that I could be to others, as well as myself, something other than what they believed me to be.

“Because, in order to behold yourself, you must for a moment halt life within you. Excuse me, but seeing that you go to the photographer’s so often——when the photographer, in front of you with his camera, tells you to be sure not to move, you must have noticed—life is suspended in you—and you feel that such suspension cannot last more than a second——it is like turning into a statue—For life is constant motion, and one can never really see one’s self.”