We are concerned with the design of programming languages that support the paradigm of component-oriented programming. Languages based on the accepted idea of combining modular and object-oriented concepts fail to provide adequate support. We argue that messages should be separated from methods to address this shortcoming. We introduce the concept of stand-alone messages, give examples for its utility, and compare it to related approaches and language constructs. Besides leading to interesting insights on the interaction of modular and object-oriented concepts, we believe that stand-alone messages also provide a useful basis for further research on component-oriented programming languages.