“Freud said he didn’t know what women wanted. I know what women want. They want a whole lot of people to talk to.”

“He didn’t want to be what he wasn’t, he didn’t know how to be what he was.”

Michael Chabon (1963) Novelist, short story writer, essayist

“When they asked me what I wanted to be I said I didn’t know.
"Oh, sure you know," the photographer said.
"She wants," said Jay Cee wittily, "to be everything.”

Sylvia Plath book The Bell Jar

“"What do women want?" As though it's really mysterious. As though it's a big deal. All that women want is what anybody wants. You know, friendship and companionship and respect and a certain amount of leadership with submission and a kind of cooperation at all times and pre-emptive empathy and you know, general telepathy. It's no big deal, is it? […] Traditionally, women have been attracted to uniforms. So it's not difficult to know what women want. Fascists - that's really what they're all after!”

Dylan Moran (1971) Irish actor and comedian

“What women want is what men want. They want respect.”

Marilyn vos Savant (1946) US American magazine columnist, author and lecturer

“I don’t know if it’s enough for a whole life, a man wants to enjoy many women, a man is different.”

Elfriede Jelinek (1946) Austrian writer

“Women writers should write a lot if they want to write. Take the English women, for example. What amazing workers.”

Anton Chekhov (1860–1904) Russian dramatist, author and physician

“People know what they want because they know what other people want.”

Theodor W. Adorno (1903–1969) German sociologist, philosopher and musicologist known for his critical theory of society

“Women don't want to hear what you think. Women want to hear what they think - in a deeper voice.”

Bill Cosby (1937) American actor, comedian, author, producer, musician, activist

“He was only six, but he already knew that he hated it when he had to do what other people wanted, even when he knew that they were wrong. He didn’t want to be a soldier. He didn’t want to kill. He didn’t want to die. He didn’t want to obey stupid people.”

Orson Scott Card Ender's Game hexalogy