POPULAR QUOTE: Looking for the author of this particular quote. Please help!

[Komal]

"I fell in love with solitude.
Submerged myself in it like bathwater, soaked in it, let it wash over my skin, crawl into my pores, settle in my lungs.
I inhale loneliness like it's the sweetest spring air that has ever kissed my lips.
When did one become the most beautiful number?"

I'm aware this is not a book, but I was helpless.
I have searched the entirety of the internet world to the best of my abilities to find the source/author of this particular quote. I haven't been able to. It's present in abundance in all types of blogs and stuff, but I am unable to dig up the author.

If someone knows the book, the author or the source of this quote, please, please let me know.

Thank you!

[bb.]

I'm pretty sure a Tumblr user owns that quote but I could be wrong.

[Kate]

I just did a search for this quote. It's annoying how many people have it on their websites without one attribution.

[Komal]

@Winaa and Kate
Yeah, when I ran a search for the quote, it almost always showed up on a tumblr page. And very annoying how no one mentioned any source. You're probably right Winaa.

@Sage
I'd found that page as well and I can't decide whether this is the author. The quote sounds like something which came from the mind of a person who has a strong grip on the English Language; this user (no offence intended) seems to lack a bit on those skills. Maybe he/she used that quote and elaborated a whole new set of feelings? Maybe they actually are good at words, just not at grammar. Who knows?
This is still the closest I can come to as a source for this quote, but still can't be sure.

Thank you for your input, you all. Here's hoping someone can come up with a definite answer soon.

[Michele]

The earliest occurrence of it online appears to have been October 12, 2010, on http://sophia-mae.tumblr.com/ . You might try contacting her and asking her where she got it.

[Komal]

I don't think it's her, but I'll try anyway. Thanks Michele!

[Rachel]

I found it sourced as simply "unknown" a number of times.

[Cumbling Michael]

I'm sorry.

I don't know the source of this quote. But when it was first posted, there was a quote I also wanted to source. So, on the basis of your query being accepted, I posted my own quote query.

Needless to say, the Mods jumped on me and kicked my ass, then bumped my query into "Just to Chat" - where it has lain, unobserved, ever since.

It seems to me that in this group there are rules for some, but not for others.

Mike

[Lobstergirl, au gratin]

Mike, I assure you it's nothing personal. It's more like there are multiple mods here, we aren't always operating from rules set in stone, so we sometimes do what seems logical at the moment.

Mods, should we leave Quotes queries in Unsolved, or Just to Chat?

In the meantime, Mike, there is nothing preventing you from bumping your quote thread - regardless of where it is sitting - every 30 days, just like any booksearch thread. There's no reason it has to go unobserved.

[Lobstergirl, au gratin]

For the record this is how moderator Kate opined in Mike's thread:

I do think putting random quotes that don't appear to originate in a book in the Just to Chat section sounds good. If the quote is from a book, leave it in the unsolved books section.

[Cumbling Michael]

Lobstergirl,

Firstly, you and I are hi-jacking this poor woman's thread, so I suggest that for any further discussion of the point, you move this and the previous three posts to chat. You could use the header “Quote Posts”. It got your attention, though, didn't it?

I never imagined it was personal. You don't know me. How could it be?

Nevertheless, to be crapped on in public is embarrassing, and to do that to someone else unjustly is an abuse of power. Either you have a rule, or you don't. You don't decide in public, and kick around your victim in the process. Very bad form.

Mike

[Lobstergirl, au gratin]

Mike, you hijacked this thread. I didn't.

We don't want to start a new section for quote searches because we are a group that looks for books. Not quotes.

[Lobstergirl, au gratin]

Moving to Just to Chat.

[Cumbling Michael]

Dear me,

What a short-tempered power monster you are.

You didn't have to move the whole of the poor woman's thread to somewhere it will never be seen. You could have just been sensible, and moved the last four posts.

I would have thought the first qualification for a moderator would be moderation.

Mike

[HeavyReader]

I agree that this group looks for books, not for quotes. I think folks who want to look for quotes could start a group for that.

Also, folks who don't want to help find quotes could just ignore posts asking for that kind of help.

[Cumbling Michael]

HeavyReader wrote: "I agree that this group looks for books, not for quotes. I think folks who want to look for quotes could start a group for that.

Also, folks who don't want to help find quotes could just ignore po..."

I'm not entirely sure what your point is here. You seem to be saying that people shouldn't be here looking for quotes (even though they may have come from books), but that people who are not interested in quotes should just ignore those who are, thereby allowing the people who are looking for quotes to continue posting? So the forum should both ban and tolerate seekers of quotes? Sounds a bit Postmodernist to me.

Mike

[Komal]

I'm not sure what the argument here is about, but I strongly think that questions pertaining to quotes should be allowed. After all, what if they are a part of some book? And even if they aren't, there should be a separate topic for quotes. Or it should be mandatory to put 'Quote' in your discussion title or something.
A book community is the best community to ask around for quotes' help, in my opinion.

[Feliks]

I've seen this quote recently.

[Komal]

Everyone has at one point, but no one knows where it came from.
Frustrating.

[Cumbling Michael]

Well, you know, it seems to me that we have here a community of well-read, knowledgeable people. And if we want to find out where particular quotes came from, who better to ask? And if the people in the forum don't want to participate, then they don't have to. As has already been suggested, people who aren't interested can simply ignore the queries (as they already do with books they don't know about). If somebody is looking for a quote, and they don't know where it came from, - so maybe it did or didn't come from a book, what's the harm?

Unless, of course, the power-maddened rule-bound fascists decide to intervene.

Mike

[Valerie]

It sounds vaguely like Sylvia Plath to me.

[Komal]

I agree with Mike.

And nah, Valerie. If it was by Plath, the source wouldn't be so obscure for most.

[Valerie]

No, I just meant it sounds vaguely like her style, didn't mean it was her. :-)

[drowningmermaid]

To me it sounds like James Baldwin...

It's probably not in Giovanni's Room, but it sounds like some of his...

[Jean]

I doubt this is from a book. It doesn't turn up in quotes on amazon at all. This tumblr references a lot of tv. It's probably from a tv show or movie that was popular at the time.