I had lunch with a friend who had just got divorced and she said to me:
' Now I can enjoy the freedom I've always dreamed of having' .  But that's a lie. No one wants that kind of freedom: we all want commitment, we all want someone to be beside us to enjoy the beauties of Geneva, to discuss books, interviews, films, or even to share a sandwhich with because there isn't enough money to buy one each. Better to eat half a sandwhich than a whole one.  Better to be interrupted by the man who wants to get straight back home because there's a big game on TV tonight or by the woman who stops outside a shop window and interrupts what we were saying about the cathedral tower , far better than to have the whole of Geneva to yourself with all the time and quiet in the world to visit it.
Better to go hungry than to be alone.Because when you're alone-and I'm talking here about an enforced solitude not of our choosing- it's as if you were no longer part of the human race.
.............
Being with someone else and making that person feel as if they were of no importance in our life is far worse than feeling alone and miserable in the streets of Geneva.


This is an extract from a novel titled  The Zahir by Paulo Coelho