“In [the story of Jesus] I found … a center for my being. Behind the supernatural framework of the first century, behind the language of myth, magic, and superstition, I discovered a life I wanted to know; a life that possessed a power I wanted to possess; a freedom, a wholeness for which I had yearned for years.”

“I had a consuming ambition to possess a miller's thumb. I believe I have never since wanted anything more desperately than I wanted my right thumb to be flattened as my father’s had become, during his earlier years of a miller’s life.”

“Irony, perfect definition: that for which I want to possess it, I would no longer want once I possessed it.”

“I do not want to be admired. I want to give, to be given, and solitude in which to unfold my possessions.”

“I felt as if I had blundered into someone else's life by chance, discovered I wanted to stay, then blundered back into my own, without a clue, a hint, or a way of finishing the story.”

“I want to be with one person in my life. I want to know that the guy I spend the rest of my life with is the first person I share something so intimate and exciting with.”

“… and I discovered something: the meaning of my life was whatever I wanted it to be.”

“Socialism, I want to propose, is the hope for human freedom and justice under the unprecedented conditions of life that humanity will face in the twenty-first century.”

“If I want a long boring story with no point to it, I have my life.”

“I had these obsessive desires and thoughts wanting to control them [victims], to–I don't know how to put it–possess them permanently.”