We read to know that we are not alone.

Nicholson’s screenplay for the 1993 film Shadowlands is the earliest source established in this run, on O’Flaherty’s secondary scene citation and Nicholson’s own later confirmation. Nicholson’s exact wording in the 2019 interview lacks ‘that’; the popular form recorded by O’Flaherty includes it. A directly read alt.quotations thread shows the form with ‘that’ circulating on 25 September 1996 and being assigned to Nicholson on 2 October. The response also calls it a stage-play line, but Nicholson’s first-person distinction between film and play takes precedence. Neither the 1985 television version nor an early printed screenplay was examined, so an earlier occurrence has not been excluded. The date when it was first credited to Lewis was not established. Searches covered the atlas’s seven existing Lewis entries, its empty Lewis source-text index, Wikiquote’s main and Talk pages, the Foundation’s correction, and O’Flaherty’s research; this was not a fresh search of Lewis’s complete copyrighted works.

1. 1993Earliest found · credited to William NicholsonThe 1993 film Shadowlands contains the reading maxim; this is the earliest source established here, through O’Flaherty’s account, with authorship independently confirmed by Nicholson in 2019.William Nicholson, screenplay for Shadowlands (1993), directed by Richard Attenborough. Checked on another researcher’s citation, not seen first-hand. Source
2. 25 September 1996Spread · credited to no oneA public alt.quotations post asks who originated the form with the extra word “that”, without naming an author.alt.quotations, “Who said ‘We read to know that we are not alone’???”, opening post, 25 September 1996. Checked in a full-text transcription. Source
3. 2 October 1996Credited to William NicholsonA reply assigns the line to William Nicholson and Shadowlands; its additional claim about the play is not adopted, since Nicholson later identifies the line as film-only.alt.quotations, reply in “Who said ‘We read to know that we are not alone’???”, 2 October 1996. Checked in a full-text transcription. Source
4. 27 April 2019Spread · credited to William NicholsonNicholson publicly identifies the maxim as his film dialogue and rejects its attribution to the historical Lewis.Heather Neill, “theartsdesk Q&A: playwright William Nicholson”, The Arts Desk, 27 April 2019. Checked in a full-text transcription. Source

In William Nicholson’s dramatization of Lewis’s life, the fictional Lewis recalls a student’s father’s saying about reading and later repeats it to another student. This scene identification is reported by William O’Flaherty, not checked against a recording in this run. In a 2019 interview, Nicholson himself identifies the line as film dialogue, not a line from the stage play or a statement by the historical Lewis.

Reading connects a reader with the inner lives of other people and makes private experience feel less isolated.

The actor’s delivery as Lewis is mistaken for documentary evidence that Lewis wrote the sentence. Even within the film, O’Flaherty notes that the saying is initially attributed to a student’s father, rather than invented by its Lewis character.

• ShortenedWe read to know we are not alone The screenwriter’s own wording in his 2019 interview; unlike the popular form, it omits ‘that’. This records the interview’s wording, not an independently checked film transcript. Where it was seen

Loneliness, Emotions

• We accept the love we think we deserve. Stephen Chbosky
• Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate. (paraphrase) Carl Gustav Jung
• Much unhappiness has come into the world because of bewilderment and things left unsaid. (not found) Fyodor Dostoevsky
• It would be impossible to banish fear on matters of the highest importance, if a man did not know the nature of the whole universe, but lived in dread of what the legends tell us. Hence without the study of nature there was no enjoyment of unmixed pleasures. Epicurus
• It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live, remember that. J. K. Rowling

• cslewis.org/aboutus/faq/quotes-misattributed
• essentialcslewis.com/2015/09/05/we-read-to-know
• theartsdesk.com/theatre/theartsdesk-qa-playwright-william-nicholson
• williamnicholson.com/credits
• groups.google.com/g/alt.quotations/c/ZEO7UznhnfI

“We read to know that we are not alone.” Attributed to C. S. Lewis. No. William Nicholson wrote it for Shadowlands. Nicholson himself says the film line was never said by C. S. Lewis. Quotogeny, https://quotogeny.com/q/we-read-to-know-that-we-are-not-alone/ (checked 27 October 2026).

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