You know I’m always on the phone or email because of my job. But as far as being alone: thus far in my short career of trying to be a writer, I have never felt more alone at work, at home, or just, anywhere.

I’m constantly in this sudden, unexpected position of being incredibly intimate with people whom I interview — they tell me things that are most important to them; they describe experiences that are personal, painful, joyful…and I have to ask them for every detail. And then within a day, they are gone from my life, so to speak. I end the interview and then have to write about it before I move on to the next person. In many ways, I have no real connections to the people I interview. And no matter how I write about them, the lives of these people are still more real to me than to my readers, no matter how I write about them.

Yes, cell phones, emails, and the internet all facilitate my job. But I fail to see how they can make me feel more or less alone. I think if you crave the ability to be alone (and if you crave that “fraternity of solitude”) there is no better solution than to be a writer.