Anyone who truly wants to escape human solipsism should not seek out empty places. Instead of fleeing to the desert, where they will be thrown back into their own thoughts, they will do better to seek the company of other animals. A zoo is a better window from which to look out of the human world than a monastery.

The Unsaved: The Mirror of Solitude (p. 150-1) - Straw Dogs: Thoughts on Humans and Other Animals (2002)