Sir, - On reading your report (The Irish Times, June 18th) about Greta Garbo's secret burial in Stockholm - "Garbo's wish to be alone respected finally" - I found myself musing in particular on the article's reference to her famous line in the 1932 film Grand Hotel: "I want to be alone".
While she herself used the phrase several times on the screen (in the 1929 silent film The Single Standard, for example, it is seen in a subtitle), it is worth noting that she seemingly never spoke the words in statements, conversation, or interviews. Rather, we know that she insisted: "I never said, `I want to be alone', I only said, `I want to be let alone' - there is all the difference."
I suppose one could say that, while the great actress could be said to prefer privacy to solitude, the latter states were happily in evidence in their own mysterious manner both at the burial of her ashes and the memorial service the following day.
Whatever the reason may be, it seems that people like to accept the mythical catchphrase as true, especially as it is redolent of mystery and was employed, albeit only in films, by one who was quite a recluse for the second period of her life. Indeed, it has been rightly cited, it seems to me, as an excellent example of art acquiring its effects from a fantasy that was a reality for so many. - Yours, etc.,
Fr Pat Deighan, Beach Park, Laytown, Co Meath.