Solitude is a recurring motif in The New York Trilogy, affecting each of the three protagonists and connecting the loneliness of the writing process to the exploration of the inner self. In City of Glass, Quinn, a writer, is a lone figure. Haunted by the loss of his loved ones, Quinn leads a solitary life writing detective novels. He finds comfort in the fictional protagonist of the novels, Max Work, who becomes “his comrade in solitude” (6). Quinn finds a new sense of purpose in the Stillman case, but its outcome isolates him even more. Unable to solve the mystery, Quinn stakes out the Stillmans’ apartment, avoiding other humans as he realizes “the true nature of solitude” (118). In the end, he returns to the solitude of the writer, sequestering himself in a room and writing in the red notebook.

In Ghosts, the protagonist, Blue, is a detective unaccustomed to being alone. However, when White hires him to watch Black, his newfound solitude causes him to turn inward, and he realizes that his inner self is unknown to him. Over the course of the story, introspection transforms his character. He begins to write stories but does not experience writing as an “escape”; rather, he feels “condemned […] to experience life only through words, […] only through the lives of others” (171-72).