“I want these gentle hands… and this kind smile… although I should not want such a thing.”

“Mama--Mama--I want so many things… I want so many things that they are driving me kind of crazy…”

“What do I want from this life? What makes you happy is not enough. All the things that satisfy our instincts only satisfy the animal in us. I want to be proud of myself. I want more. I want to look up to myself and when I die, I want to smile because of the things I have done, not cry for the things I haven't done.”

“"Will you be wanting to contest the divorce?" I asked Mrs. Davis.
"I should think not," she said calmly, "although I suppose on of us should, for the fun of the thing. An uncontested divorce always seems to me contrary to the spirit of divorce."”

“I like joy; I want to be joyous. I want to smile and I want to make people laugh. And that`s all I want. I like being happy. I want to make others happy.”

“I want to write, but more than that, I want to bring out all kinds of things that lie buried deep in my heart.”

“I would give up everything for you, Giulia"
I smiled at him gently. "But you must understand. I should never want a man to give up anything for me. I should want him to feel in winning me he has won the whole world…”

“Sometimes I felt like I was waiting for my life to begin and more than anything, in that moment, I wanted to force some kind of beginning. I wanted things to be different than usual. I wanted to bend reality.”

“Things are sweeter when they're lost. I know--because once I wanted something and got it. It was the only thing I ever wanted badly, Dot, and when I got it it turned to dust in my hand.”

“I had no idea what I wanted, only that I wanted something, which is the worst kind of wanting.”