“One wants to move through life with elegance and grace, blossoming infrequently but with exquisite taste, and perfect timing, like a rare bloom, a zebra orchid… One wants… But one so seldom gets what one wants, does one?”

“You see? In the fairy tales one does as one wants, and in reality one does what one can.”

“In this world there are only two tragedies. One is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it.”

“One does not want glory accepted as a matter of course. One wants to shock and astonish people with it.”

“No one in the world gets what they want and that is beautiful.”

“If I start giving people what they like I'll turn into one of them and I don't want to be one of them I want to be one of me.”

“… there are two ways of being unhappy. Not getting what you want is one. Getting what you want is the other.”

“To want to be what one can be is purpose in life.”

“Well, I am happy, and I won't fret, but it does seem as if the more one gets the more one wants…”

“One of the first signs of the beginnings of understanding is the wish to die. This life appears unbearable, another unattainable. One is no longer ashamed of wanting to die; one asks to be moved from the old cell, which one hates, to a new one, which one will only in time come to hate.”