Quotes about need
page 20

“Maybe it’s the other way around,” Jason suggested. “Maybe people with special gifts show up when bad things are happening because that’s when
they’re needed most.”

Rick Riordan (1964) American writer

People, Way

“What he needed was to find fifty more people like him, who had stopped being themselves without realizing it.”

Jennifer Egan A Visit from the Goon Squad

Source: A Visit from the Goon Squad

People

“Contrary to what we may have been taught to think, unnecessary and unchosen suffering wounds us but need not scar us for life. It does mark us. What we allow the mark of our suffering to become is in our own hands.”

Bell Hooks book All About Love: New Visions

Source: All About Love: New Visions

Life, Thinking, Suffering

“Let woman out of the home, let man into it, should be the aim of education. The home needs man, and the world outside needs woman.”

Pearl S. Buck (1892–1973) American writer

World, Education, Home

“You can knock down kingdoms on a whim. What you need is someone to make sure you don't get hit by a carriage when you cross the street.”

Scott Lynch book The Republic of Thieves

Source: The Republic of Thieves

“If you have a choice between extra makeup or extra weapons always take the weapons. Just the fact that you're debating between those two choices proves that you're going to need the weapons more.”

Laurell K. Hamilton A Kiss of Shadows

Source: A Kiss of Shadows

“She knows what it's like to love someone who cannot love you back. Someone who needs you, holds you, yes, but someone who will never know that love is the knife in your heart.”

John Dufresne (1948) Novelist, short story writer, screenwriter, playwright

Source: Love Warps the Mind a Little

Love, Heart

“Remember, if you ever need a helping hand, it's at the end of your arm, as you get older, remember you have another hand: The first is to help yourself, the second is to help others.”

Sam Levenson (1911–1980) American journalist

Help

“You don't need water to feel like you're drowning, do you?”

Jodi Picoult book Nineteen Minutes

Source: Nineteen Minutes

Feeling, Water

“The need to write comes from the need to make sense of one’s life and discover one’s usefulness.”

John Cheever (1912–1982) American novelist and short story writer

Accepting Edward MacDowell Medal (September 8, 1979).

Life, Sense

“If you rely exclusively on the advice of others, you may make terrible mistakes. Your heart knows what you need. Other people have other agendas.”

Brian L. Weiss

Source: Only Love Is Real: A Story of Soulmates Reunited

People, Heart

“No one is going to give you the education you need to overthrow them. Nobody is going to teach you your true history, teach you your true heroes, if they know that that knowledge will help set you free.”

Assata Shakur (1947) American activist who was a member of the Black Panther Party and Black Liberation Army

Education, History, Knowledge, Help

“I dropped all the guards. All the leashes, all the chains, everything that ever restrained me through the discipline and fear of discovery, I let it all go. No need to hide.”

Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo

Source: Magic Burns

Fear

“Sometimes you don't need lightning to start a fire. Sometimes, it builds on its own.”

Sarah Mlynowski (1977) Novelist

Source: Ten Things We Did

“Makes sense to me. Sometimes starting over is exactly what a person needs. And I think it's admirable. A lot of people don't have the courage it takes to do something like that.”

Nicholas Sparks book Safe Haven

Source: Safe Haven

People, Courage, Thinking, Sense

“You don't need right - if you have strength”

L.J. Smith (1965) American author

“I'd rather make a show 100 people need to see, than a show that 1000 people want to see.”

Joss Whedon (1964) American director, writer, and producer for television and film

People

“I wanted to talk to someone. But who? It’s moments like this, when you need someone the most, that your world seems smallest.”

Rachel Cohn (1968) American writer

Source: Dash & Lily's Book of Dares

World

“It's pathetic how we can't live with the things we can't understand. How we need everything labeled and explained and deconstructed.”

Chuck Palahniuk book Choke

Variant: It’s pathetic how we can’t live with the things we can’t understand. How we need everything labeled and explained and deconstructed.
Source: Asfixia

Understanding

“… sometimes when we are beating ourselves up, we need to stop and say to that harassing voice inside, "Man, I'm doing the very best I can right now."”

Brené Brown (1965) US writer and professor

Source: Rising Strong

“What she needed was just one person, one wise and sympathetic grown-up who could help her.”

Roald Dahl book Matilda

Source: Matilda

Help, Personality

“We are like sculptors, constantly carving out of others the image we long for, need, love or desire, often against reality, against their benefit, and always, in the end, a disappointment, because it does not fit them.”

Anaïs Nin (1903–1977) writer of novels, short stories, and erotica

Love, Disappointment, Reality

“Anyone who knows me well must understand and be sympathetic to my genuine need to be my own greatest hero. It is not a flaw of character; it is a catastrophe.”

Pat Conroy The Lords of Discipline

Source: The Lords of Discipline

Understanding

“I need to be alone. I need to ponder my shame and my despair in seclusion; I need the sunshine and the paving stones of the streets without companions, without conversation, face to face with myself, with only the music of my heart for company.”

Henry Miller book Tropic of Cancer

Source: Tropic of Cancer (1934), Chapter Four, Pappin
Context: I am a free man-and I need my freedom. I need to be alone. I need to ponder my shame and my despair in seclusion. I need sunshine and paving tones of the streets without companions, without conversation, face to face with myself with only the music of my heart for company. What do you want of me? When I have something to say, I put it in print. When I have something to give, I give it. Your prying curiosity turns my stomach! Your compliments humiliate me. Your tea poisons me! I owe nothing to anyone, I would've responsible to God alone-if he exited!

Music, Heart, Despair

“I always need your strength, Alec”

Cassandra Clare The City of Lost Souls

Source: City of Lost Souls

“I think I needed to be really hurt on the outside so the hurt on the inside would realize that it wasn’t on its own and that it had to come out.”

Sarra Manning (1950) British writer

Thinking, Hurt

“The secret of high finance… if you really need a loan, you won't qualify. And if you don't need a loan, all the lenders will line up to give you money.”

Joanne Fluke (1943) writer

Source: Peach Cobbler Murder

Money, Secret

“Trust life, and it will teach you, in joy and sorrow, all you need to know.”

James Baldwin (1924–1987) (1924-1987) writer from the United States

Life, Joy

“I believe that, as long as there is plenty, poverty is evil. Government belongs wherever evil needs an adversary and there are people in distress.”

Robert F. Kennedy (1925–1968) American politician and brother of John F. Kennedy

People, Evil

“Every time I mention her, Magnus says, "Are you two getting along?" in raised, hopeful tones, like we're endangered pandas who need to make a baby.”

Sophie Kinsella book I've Got Your Number

Source: I've Got Your Number

Hope, Time, Baby

“Everything you need to know about life can be learned from a genuine and ongoing attempt to write”

Dani Shapiro (1962) Author

Source: Still Writing: The Perils and Pleasures of a Creative Life

Life, Learning

“And in that one grey hair I saw my whole life and I said "I think I need a hair.”

Tim Burton (1958) American filmmaker

Source: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Life, Thinking

“And although one broken heart doesn't make me an expert in the subject, I believe you need both things - time and an emotional replacement - to fully mend one.”

Emily Giffin (1972) American writer

Source: Love the One You're With

Time, Heart

“I decided to dub the room with the good chairs my lutery. Or perhaps my performatory. I would need a while to come up with something suitably pretentious.”

Patrick Rothfuss book The Wise Man's Fear

Source: The Wise Man's Fear

“What I'm asking you to entertain is that there is nothing we need to believe on insufficient evidence in order to have deeply ethical and spiritual lives.”

Sam Harris (1967) American author, philosopher and neuroscientist

“We mask our needs as the needs of others.”

Terry Tempest Williams (1955) American writer

Source: When Women Were Birds: Fifty-four Variations on Voice

“I don't need anything else. I get out of bed every morning and face the world because you're in it.”

Sylvia Day (1973) American writer

Source: Reflected in You

World

“You just need to be a flea against injustice. Enough committed fleas biting strategically can make even the biggest dog uncomfortable and transform even the biggest nation.”

Marian Wright Edelman (1939) American children's rights activist

Dogs

“What we needed were not words and promises but the steady accumulation of small realities.”

Haruki Murakami book South of the Border, West of the Sun

Variant: What we needed were not words and promises but a steady accumulation of small realities.
Source: South of the Border, West of the Sun

Reality

“Differences are not intended to separate, to alienate. We are different precisely in order to realize our need of one another.”

Desmond Tutu (1931) South African churchman, politician, archbishop, Nobel Prize winner

“And she finds it difficult to believe—that a person would love her even when she isn't trying. Trying to figure out what other people need, trying to be worthy.”

Margaret Atwood (1939) Canadian writer

Love, People, Personality

“My main reason for adopting literature as a profession was that, as the author is never seen by his clients, he need not dress respectably.”

George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish playwright

Literature

“What I need is someone who will make me do what I can.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) American philosopher, essayist, and poet

“I need no warrant for being, and no word of sanction upon my being. I am the warrant and the sanction.”

Ayn Rand book Anthem

Anthem (1937)

“The worst thing you can do if you miss or need someone is let them know it.”

Sarah Dessen Lock and Key

Source: Lock and Key

Missing You

“Man needs what's worst in him in order to achieve what's best in him.”

Paulo Coelho book The Devil and Miss Prym

Source: The Devil and Miss Prym

“Our age has need of violence," he writes. And he is violence.”

Anaïs Nin (1903–1977) writer of novels, short stories, and erotica

Source: Henry and June: From "A Journal of Love"--The Unexpurgated Diary of Anaïs Nin

Age

“I think that, with age, people come to realize that death is inevitable. And we need to learn to face it with serenity, wisdom and resignation. Death often frees us from a lot of senseless sufferings.”

Paulo Coelho book The Devil and Miss Prym

Source: The Devil and Miss Prym

Death, Wisdom, People, Age

“You dinna need to understand me, Sassenach," he said quietly. "So long as you love me.”

Diana Gabaldon book Dragonfly in Amber

Source: Dragonfly in Amber

Love, Understanding

“A man travels the world over in search of what he needs and returns home to find it.”

Kathleen Norris (1880–1966) American writer

World, Travel, Home, Search

“And the scary thing I have noticed is that some people really feel uncomfortable around women who don’t hate themselves. So that’s why you need to be a little bit brave.”

Mindy Kaling book Why Not Me?

Source: Why Not Me?

Women, Hate, People, Feeling

“Secrets. Need to disguise. The novel was born of this.”

Anaïs Nin book Delta of Venus

Source: Delta of Venus

Secret

“In order that people may be happy in their work,
these three things are needed:
they must be fit for it;
they must not do too much of it;
and they must have a sense of success in it.”

John Ruskin (1819–1900) English writer and art critic

Happiness, People, Sense, Success

“Books to the ceiling,
Books to the sky,
My pile of books is a mile high.
How I love them! How I need them!
I'll have a long beard by the time I read them.”

Arnold Lobel (1933–1987) American children's illustrator and writer

Love, Books, Time, Reading

“What is good, Phædrus, and what is not good—need we ask anyone to tell us these things?”

Robert M. Pirsig book Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

Source: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (1974), Ch. 30
The quote is from section 258d of the dialogue Phædrus (tr. Benjamin Jowett).
Source: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values
Context: A single thought begins to grow in his mind, extracted from something he read in the dialogue Phædrus. "And what is written well and what is written badly—need we ask Lysias, or any other poet or orator, who ever wrote or will write either a political or any other work, in metre or out of metre, poet or prose writer, to teach us this?"
What is good, Phædrus, and what is not good—need we ask anyone to tell us these things?

“I need someone to protect me from all the measures they take in order to protect me.”

Banksy pseudonymous England-based graffiti artist, political activist, and painter

Wall and Piece (2007)

“Men aren't stupid, and you don't need a complicated set of rules to find a good one who loves you. Here's the only rule you need: if a man loves you, he will do anything he can to keep you around. Anything.”

Kim Gruenenfelder (1967) American writer

Source: A Total Waste of Makeup

Love, Men, Stupidity

“People don't need wings to survive"
"Mockingjays do.”

Suzanne Collins book Mockingjay

Source: Mockingjay

People

“I believe that children in this country need a more robust literary diet than they are getting…. I will never talk down to, or draw down to, children.”

Barbara Cooney (1917–2000) American writer and illustrator of children's books

Children, Drawing, Country

“Across the room, Hale smiled slightly. 'We can draw you a diagram if you need it.'

'No thanks,' Nick said. 'I think I've got everyone but you.”

Ally Carter book Heist Society

Source: Heist Society

Smile, Thinking, Drawing

“Still, I couldn't help but wonder if it was a mistake for people like us to be tied to a place. If we weren't meant to be ready and willing to wander. If everything we needed was contained in who we were.
And what we remember.”

Alice Hoffman (1952) Novelist, young-adult writer, children's writer

Source: Incantation

People, Help

“You are the male I might have been. You are the potential I had and lost. You are the honor and the strength and the kindness she needs. You'll take care of her. I want you to take care of her.”

Jessica Bird (1969) U.S. novelist

Source: Lover Awakened

“One does not need to have cancer to analyze its symptoms.”

Dan Brown book Angels & Demons

Source: Angels & Demons

“You don't need to wait for inspiration to write. It's easier to be inspired while writing that while not writing…”

Josip Novakovich (1956) Canadian writer

Source: Fiction Writer's Workshop

Waiting

“I'd been told that he had been created-literally created-just for me, as my "perfect other half." Let me tell you-if Dylan was my perfect other half, then i needed to give my first half a seriouis look-see.”

James Patterson (1947) American author

Source: Angel

Perfection

“When we truly need to do is often what we most feel like avoiding.”

David Allen (1945) American productivity consultant and author

Source: Ready for Anything: 52 Productivity Principles for Getting Things Done

Feeling

“You can include me, too." William blew Olivia a kiss, and her cheeks heated with a blush. "No need to say anything. I already know what words are perched on your tongue. Stop me if I'm wrong, but my getting to know you will be your pleasure.”

Gena Showalter (1975) American writer

Source: The Darkest Passion

Pleasure, Kiss

“I never married because there was no need. I have three pets at home which answer the same purpose as a husband. I have a dog which growls every morning, a parrot which swears all afternoon, and a cat that comes home late at night.”

Marie Corelli (1855–1924) British writer

Dogs, Home, Cats, Night

“You don't need to show off your body to catch a boy's eye. You'd best learn that early on, or you'll be bringing home the worst sort of boy.”

Danielle Steel (1947) American author of romance novels

Home, Boy, Learning

“Women need a reason to have sex; men need only a place.”

Nelson DeMille book Wild Fire

Source: Wild Fire

Women, Men, Sex

“I've needed someone like you for a long time. Now that I have you, no one is going to take you from me.

Logan to Madeline”

Lisa Kleypas (1964) American writer

Source: Because You're Mine

Time

“Today I love you more than ever; tomorrow I will love you even more. I need you more than ever; I want you more than ever.”

Cecelia Ahern book Love, Rosie

Source: Love, Rosie

Love

“I could disappear from the face of the earth, and the world would go on moving without the slightest twinge. Things were tremendously complicated, to be sure, but one thing was clear: no one needed me.”

Haruki Murakami book The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle

Source: The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle

World

“Experience is something you get… after you need it.”

Jill Shalvis (1963) American writer

Source: Simply Irresistible

“It is the same way with dating. The time you are most prepared for dating is when you don't need anyone to complete you, fulfill you, or instill in you a sense of worth or purpose.”

Myles Munroe (1954–2014) Bahamian Evangelical Christian minister

Source: Waiting and Dating

Way, Sense, Time

“What is pertinent is the calmness of beauty, its sense of restraint. It is as though the land knows of its own beauty, its own greatness, and feels no need to shout it.”

Kazuo Ishiguro The Remains of the Day

Source: The Remains of the Day

Beauty, Feeling, Sense

“I’ll do whatever you want, whatever you need. Anything. Just take me back.”

Sylvia Day book Bared to You

Source: Bared to You

“The truth is revealed when you are ready to receive it when you need it in order to move forward to take the next step in your journey. to move on toward your destiny.”

Alyson Nöel (1965) writer

Source: Everlasting

Truth

“… do every day or two something for no other reason that you would rather not do it, so that when the hour of dire need draws nigh, it may find you not unnerved and untrained to stand the test.”

William James (1842–1910) American philosopher, psychologist, and pragmatist

Source: 1890s, The Principles of Psychology (1890), Ch. 4
Source: Habit
Context: Keep the faculty of effort alive in you by a little gratuitous exercise every day. That is, be systematically ascetic or heroic in little unnecessary points, do every day or two something for no other reason than that you would rather not do it, so that when the hour of dire need draws nigh, it may find you not unnerved and untrained to stand the test. So with the man who has daily inured himself to habits of concentrated attention, energetic volition, and self-denial in unnecessary things. He will stand like a tower when everything rocks around him, and when his softer fellow-mortals are winnowed like chaff in the blast.

Drawing

“If you never take a risk, you will never
know what changes you need to make.”

Paulo Coelho (1947) Brazilian lyricist and novelist

Change

“I just want one person I can rescue and I want one person who needs me. Who can't live without me. I want to be a hero, but not just one time.”

Chuck Palahniuk book Choke

Source: Choke

Time, Personality