Lucas Hnath

“NORA: And even though I was living by myself – for everything I did – every decision I made, from what I ate to when I went to bed – I could hear a voice in the back of my head that either sounded like you or my father or my pastor or any number of other people I knew – I’d always in my head somehow manage to check with that person to see what he thought, even though that person wasn’t a person but my thinking of that person.

And so, as long as that continued, I’d decided that I’d live in silence, not speaking and avoiding the speaking of others – and I’d live like this until I couldn’t remember what other people sounded like – until I no longer heard a voice in my head other than my voice or what I was certain had to be my voice.

That was almost two years, two yeas of silence.

And once I could hear my voice, I could think of things that I wanted that had nothing to do with what anyone else wanted.

It’s really hard to hear your own voice, and every lie you tell makes your voice harder to hear, and a lot of what we do is lying. Especially when what we want so badly from other people is for them to love us.

So I find that I’m best – that I’m my best self if I’m by myself.


TORVALD: …


NORA: … but it’s nice to sit with you.


TORVALD: Yes. It is.”
― Lucas Hnath, A Doll's House, Part 2