Quotes about want
page 25

“It's not that I want you to go, it's just that I don't want you to stay." - China Sorrows -”

Derek Landy (1974) Irish children's writer

Source: Mortal Coil

“Everyone always wants to know how you can tell when it's true love, and the answer is this: when the pain doesn't fade and the scars don't heal, and it's too damned late.”

Jonathan Tropper (1970) American writer

Source: The Book of Joe (2005), 2014-January-15 http://books.google.co.uk/books/about/The_Book_of_Joe.html?id=_T5MCwAL4owC,

Love, Pain

“Just like heaven. Ever’body wants a little piece of lan’. I read plenty of books out here. Nobody never gets to heaven, and nobody gets no land. It’s just in their head. They’re all the time talkin’ about it, but it’s jus’ in their head.”

John Steinbeck Of Mice and Men

Source: Of Mice and Men

Books, Time, Reading

“There's a guy out there who will want to tell everyone that he is your boyfriend. Quit goofing around and go find him.”

Greg Behrendt (1963) American comedian

Guy

“In art as in lovemaking, heartfelt ineptitude has its appeal and so does heartless skill, but what you want is passionate virtuosity.”

John Barth (1930) American writer

Art, Passion

“Why are people born? Why do they die? Why do they want to spend so much of the intervening time wearing digital watches?”

Douglas Adams (1952–2001) English writer and humorist

Source: The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

People, Time

“Can you come over to Amberwood? I need you to help me break curfew and escape my dorm.”
There were a few moments of silence. “Sage, I’ve been waiting two months to hear you say those words. You want me to bring a ladder?”

Richelle Mead book The Indigo Spell

Source: The Indigo Spell

Silence, Waiting, Help

“I want him to see the flowers in my eyes and hear the songs in my hands.”

Francesca Lia Block book Dangerous Angels

Source: Dangerous Angels

Flowers

“Keep walking. Hot night right now, right here. All you have is what you are. All you want is much too much. All you get is so much less. All you feel is nothing. All you see is darkness. All you know is senseless and all you can do about it is ride.”

Henry Rollins (1961) American singer-songwriter

Source: Eye Scream

Feeling, Night

“I don't want you to rescue me you said, go home you said.”

Tite Kubo (1977) Japanese manga artist

Home

“Oh love me, love me, love me, love me, love me, love me, love me, love me. I'll be anybody you want me to be.”

Chuck Palahniuk book Invisible Monsters

Source: Invisible Monsters

Love

“I can't wait to get out of the house. I can't wait to get out of here. I've been telling myself this all week. The 'getting out of here' part is unspecified, though. Maybe I simply want to get away from life”

Candace Bushnell book The Carrie Diaries

Source: The Carrie Diaries

Life, Waiting, Parting, Housing

“I'm tired and I want to rest; I want to get out of this and go lie down somewhere, off where it's dark and no one speaks. Forever.”

Philip K. Dick book Dr. Bloodmoney, or How We Got Along After the Bomb

Source: Dr. Bloodmoney

Lie

“He promised her that he would give her everything, everything she wanted, as men in love always do. And she trusted him despite herself, as women in love always do.”

Philippa Gregory book The White Queen

Source: The White Queen

Love, Women, Men

“When others demand that we become the people they want us to be, they force us to destroy the person we really are. It's a subtle kind of murder… the most loving parents and relatives commit this murder with smiles on their faces.”

Jim Morrison (1943–1971) lead singer of The Doors

Love, People, Smile, Parent

“What I'm certain I don't want is to find myself someday in a new century, an old bitter woman looking back, wishing that right now I'd had more nerve.”

Charles Frazier book Cold Mountain

Source: Cold Mountain

“It's not always so simple, Haven. Sometimes there isn't a good guy and a bad guy. Sometimes even the ones you want to believe turn out to be liars.”

Sarah Dessen book That Summer

Source: That Summer

Guy

“He didn't want to please his readers. He wanted to stretch them until they twanged.”

Martin Amis (1949) Welsh novelist

“I want to see thirst
In the syllables,
Tough fire
In the sound;
Feel through the dark
For the scream.”

Pablo Neruda (1904–1973) Chilean poet

Feeling

“I've always thought there are two ways of getting what you wanted in life. Forcing people to give it to you, or making them want to give it to you.”

Candace Bushnell book The Carrie Diaries

Source: The Carrie Diaries

Life, People, Way

“I don't want to be a writer so I can write about my life. I want to be a writer to escape from it.

+ Then you shouldn't be a writer.”

Candace Bushnell book The Carrie Diaries

Source: The Carrie Diaries

Life

“She is, above all else, tired; she wants more than anything to return to her bed and her book. The world, this world, feels suddenly stunned and stunted, far from everything.”

Michael Cunningham book The Hours

Source: The Hours

Books, World, Feeling

“When a man carries an instrument of violence, he'll always find the justification to use it. If we really want to escape this war, we have to stop bringing it with us.”

Brian K. Vaughan (1976) American screenwriter, comic book creator

Source: Saga, Vol. 1

War

“We never see the true state of our condition till it is illustrated to us by its contraries, nor know how to value what we enjoy, but by the want of it.”

Daniel Defoe La vie et les aventures de Robinson Crusoe

Source: Robinson Crusoe (1719), Ch. 10, Tames Goats.

“Who becomes you? No one. No one should become me. When I die, I don't want my body or soul inhabited. I wouldn't wish me on anyone.”

Julie Anne Peters (1952) American writer

Source: By the Time You Read This, I'll Be Dead

Soul

“She wanted to exist only as a conscious flower, prolonging and preserving herself”

F. Scott Fitzgerald book The Beautiful and Damned

Source: The Beautiful and Damned

Flowers

“Jace slammed his hand down on the stele. “Clary-“
“She said she doesn’t want it,” said Simon. “Ha-ha.”
“Ha-ha?” Jace looked incredulous. “That’s your comeback?”

Cassandra Clare book City of Ashes

Source: City of Ashes

“I wanted to get a job as a gynecologist, but I couldn't find an opening.”

George Carlin book Brain Droppings

Source: Brain Droppings

“He wanted this someone to see how much he hurt.”

Jonathan Franzen book The Corrections

Source: The Corrections

Hurt

“When a person is going through a hard time, his mind wants to give up. Satan knows that if he can defeat us in our mind, he can defeat us in our experience. That’s why it is so important that we not lose heart, grow weary and faint.”

Joyce Meyer (1943) American author and speaker

Source: Battlefield of the Mind: Winning the Battle in Your Mind

Time, Heart, Personality

“Love doesn't mean anything if you're not willing to make a commitment, and you have to think not only about what you want, but about what he wants. Not just now, but in the future.”

Nicholas Sparks book Safe Haven

Jo, Chapter 23, p. 192
Source: 2009, Safe Haven (2010)

Love, Thinking, Future

“When a man says he does not want to speak of something he usually means he can think of nothing else.”

John Steinbeck book East of Eden

Source: East of Eden

Thinking

“He smiled in a way that made me want to kiss him right on the spot. Or the lips. Whichever was closer.”

Shannon Hale (1974) American fantasy novelist

Smile, Way, Kiss

“Ah, Mastery of the Five Elements!"
"Is that the one we want?" I asked.
"No, but a good one. How to tame the five essential elements of the universe - earth, air, water, fire, and cheese!"
"Cheese?”

Rick Riordan book The Red Pyramid

Source: The Red Pyramid

Universe, Water

“In Madeleine's face was a stupidity Mitchell had never seen before. It was the stupidity of all normal people. It was the stupidity of the fortunate and the beautiful, of everybody who got what they wanted in life and so remained unremarkable.”

Jeffrey Eugenides book The Marriage Plot

Source: The Marriage Plot

Life, People, Stupidity, Beauty

“You grow ravenous. You run fevers. You know exhilarations. You can't sleep at night, because your beast-creature ideas want out and turn you in your bed. It is a grand way to live.”

Ray Bradbury book Zen in the Art of Writing

Source: Zen in the Art of Writing

Way, Idea, Sleep, Night

“I wanted to do everything once and for all and be through with it.”

Sylvia Plath book The Bell Jar

Source: The Bell Jar

“Only you pick that crab. Nobody else take it. I already know this. Everyone else want best quality. You thinking different.”

Amy Tan The Joy Luck Club

Source: The Joy Luck Club

Thinking

“It's funny about paths and rivers," he mused. "You see them go by, and suddenly you feel upset and want to be somewhere else--wherever the path or the river is going, perhaps.”

Tove Jansson book Comet in Moominland

Source: Comet in Moominland

Feeling

“You can want and want and want, but if he doesn't want you back… you might as well wish the sky were red.”

Sophie Kinsella book Twenties Girl

Source: Twenties Girl

“I don't want to be somebody's crush. If somebody likes me, I want them to like the real me, not what they think I am.”

Stephen Chbosky book The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Variant: If somebody likes me, I want them to like the real me, not what they think I am.
Source: The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Thinking

“Do you want me to call you Celery Stick instead of Cupcake or Honey-Pie? It just doesn’t inspire the same warm and fuzzy feelings.”

Richelle Mead book The Indigo Spell

Source: The Indigo Spell

Feeling

“How was it possible to miss something you no longer wanted?”

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie book Americanah

Source: Americanah

“July 24, 6:03 A. M.
The laundry was warm and the rafters were firm, and Michael Holzapfel jumped from the chair as if it were a cliff…
Michael Holzapfel knew what he was doing.
He killed himself for wanting to live.”

Markus Zusak book The Book Thief

Source: The Book Thief

“I want to be with you forever and beyond…”

Gail Carson Levine Ella Enchanted

Source: Ella Enchanted

“The bustle in a house
The morning after death
Is solemnest of industries
Enacted upon earth,--
The sweeping up the heart,
And putting love away
We shall not want to use again
Until eternity”

Emily Dickinson (1830–1886) American poet

Love, Death, Heart, Housing

“If your friend is sick and dying, the most important thing he wants is not an explanation; he wants you to sit with him. He's terrified of being alone more than anything else. So, God has not left us alone.”

Lee Strobel (1952) American writer

God

“I wanted every word to last for hours, every gaze to last for days.”

David Levithan (1972) American author and editor

Source: How They Met, and Other Stories

“Listen,' he said. 'It's important. We are all. Free. To do. Whatever. We want. To do.”

Richard Bach (1936) American spiritual writer

Source: Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah

“A dispassionate white sun shone at the summit of the sky. I wanted to hone myself on it till I grew saintly and thin and essential as the blade of a knife.”

Sylvia Plath book The Bell Jar

Source: The Bell Jar

Sun

“I had an alarm, I had nerve gas, I had a yogurt. What more could anyone want?”

Janet Evanovich book One for the Money

Source: One for the Money

“I want something else. I'm not even sure what to call it anymore except I know it feels roomy and it's drenched in sunlight and it's weightless and I know it's not cheap. Probably not even real”

Mark Z. Danielewski book House of Leaves

Variant: I want something else. I’m not even sure what to call it anymore except I know it feels roomy and it’s drenched in sunlight and it’s weightless and I know it’s not cheap. It’s probably not even real.
Source: House of Leaves

Feeling

“Ah men,
why do you want
all this attention?
I can write poems for myself, make
love to a doorknob if absolutely
necessary. What do you have to offer me
I can't find otherwise
except humiliation? Which I no longer
need.”

Margaret Atwood (1939) Canadian writer

Love, Men, Making love

“But right now I’m here with you. And I want to know where you are, what you need, and what you want to do.”

Stephen Chbosky book The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Source: The Perks of Being a Wallflower

“Since the moment I laid eyes on Jericho Barrons, I wanted him. I wanted him to do things to me that pink and clueless MacKayla Lane was shocked and appalled and… okay, yeah, well, utterly fascinated to find herself thinking about.”

Karen Marie Moning (1964) author

Source: Shadowfever

Thinking

“The truth was, I wasn't sure. But I wanted to keep believing people could change, and it was certainly easier to do so when you were in the midst of it.”

Sarah Dessen book Along for the Ride

Source: Along for the Ride

People, Truth, Change

“In the beginning I was so young and such a stranger to myself I hardly existed. I had to go out into the world and see it and hear it and react to it, before I knew at all who I was, what I was, what I wanted to be.”

Mary Oliver (1935–2019) American writer

Source: Upstream: Selected Essays

World

“TWENTY bridges from Tower to Kew -
Wanted to know what the River knew,
Twenty Bridges or twenty-two,
For they were young, and the Thames was old
And this is the tale that River told:”

Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936) English short-story writer, poet, and novelist

“Everything hurt. I closed my eyes, pressing my cheek to the street, and waited. What for, I didn't know. To be rescued. Or found. But no one came. All I'd ever thought I wanted was to be left alone. Until I was.”

Sarah Dessen book Just Listen

Source: Just Listen

Waiting, Hurt

“If you’ve found meaning in your life, you don’t want to go back. You want to go forward. You want to see more, do more.”

Mitch Albom Tuesdays with Morrie

Variant: Because if you've found meaning in your life, you don't want to go back. You want to go forward.
Source: Tuesdays with Morrie

Life

“They say The Pacific has no memory. That's where I want to live the rest of my life. A warm place with no memory.”

Stephen King (1947) American author

Source: Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption: A Story from Different Seasons

Life, Memory

“know what you want, work to get it, then value it once you have it.”

Nora Roberts (1950) American romance writer

Source: Morrigan's Cross

“If you want to write a negative review, don't tickle me gently with your aesthetic displeasure about my work. Unleash the goddamn Kraken."

[on, July 17, 2012]”

Scott Lynch (1978) American writer

“If you want to be happy, be.”

Leo Tolstoy (1828–1910) Russian writer

As quoted in Wisdom for the Soul : Five Millennia of Prescriptions for Spiritual Healing (2006) by Larry Chang, p. 352; this statement appears in late 20th century inspirational books, but with no known citation to original material by Tolstoy.
Disputed

Happiness

“He wished he could reassure his mother: a man wants many things in life, but when one of them is also the right thing, he would be a fool not to choose it.”

Jess Walter book Beautiful Ruins

Source: Beautiful Ruins

Life, Fools

“[I] don't think I was trying to kill myself. I just wanted to hurt, and understand exactly whay I was hurting. This made sense: you cut, you felt pain, period.”

Jodi Picoult book Handle With Care

Source: Handle with Care

Pain, Understanding, Thinking, Sense

“But fear is confusing. It tears you in two. Half of you wants to run far, far away, but the other half is paralyzed, frozen, immovable. And the hard part is that you never know which half is going to win.”

Melody Carlson (1956) American writer

Source: Finding Alice

Fear, Tear, Parting

“I can only assume that there’s only one thing more frustrating than not being able to find someone, and that’s not being found. I would want someone to find me, more than anything.”

Cecelia Ahern book A Place Called Here

Source: A Place Called Here

“The human race divides politically into those who want people to be controlled and those who have no such desire.”

Robert A. Heinlein (1907–1988) American science fiction author

People

“People want you to be ordinary.”

Robert Crais book The Last Detective

Source: The Last Detective

People

“You know it's love when you want to give joy and damn the consequences.”

Frank Herbert (1920–1986) American writer

Love, Joy

“Ooh.. I want one" - Bex
They're not puppies." -Cammie”

Ally Carter (1974) American writer

“You stole my bouquet? From the kistune?"
"I was very careful-"
"Do you realize what you've done?" Stefan shook Damon.
"Ow. That hurts! Do you want to break my neck.”

L.J. Smith (1965) American author

Source: Shadow Souls

Hurt

“If you want success, figure out the price, then pay it. It sounds trivial and obvious, but if you unpack the idea it has extraordinary power.”

Scott Adams (1957) cartoonist, writer

Source: How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big: Kind of the Story of My Life

Idea, Success

“But who wants to be foretold the weather? It is bad enough when it comes, without our having the misery of knowing about it beforehand.”

Jerome K. Jerome book Three Men in a Boat

Source: Three Men in a Boat

Weather

“…You don’t want the best of times to be just one thing, forever. You have to have a lot of bests of times, each one topping the last. You know?”

Sarah Dessen book Along for the Ride

Source: Along for the Ride

Time

“Do you want to know something about tyrants? When faced with death, they weep and they beg just like the rest of us.”

Melina Marchetta (1965) Australian teen writer

Source: Quintana of Charyn

Death

“all I wanted to do was sneak out into the night and disappear somewhere, and go and find out what everybody was doing all over the country.”

Jack Kerouac book On the Road

Source: On the Road

Night, Country

“I'm scared," he says.
"I know," says the nurse.
"I want you all to go to Hell."
"That's natural.”

Neal Shusterman book Unwind

Source: Unwind

Hell, Nature

“Pizza! I want some.”

Dee Dee Ramone (1951–2002) German-American songwriter and musician

“I pretend to understand because I don't want anybody to be hurt”

Charles Bukowski book Hollywood

Source: Hollywood

Understanding, Hurt

“Don't want that, do they?” She throws back her head and shouts, “Whole country in rebellion? Wouldn't want anything like that!”

Suzanne Collins book Catching Fire

Source: Catching Fire

Country

“That's all I want- to do no harm.”

Gregory Maguire book Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West

Source: Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West

“Electric, wild, one foot in the swamp. Never going to crawl all the way out. And I wanted to have sex with whatever he was.
(Mac about Barrons)”

Karen Marie Moning book Darkfever

Source: Darkfever

Sex, Way

“Never, ever, sacrifice what you want the most, for what you want the.”

James A. Owen (1969) Illustrator

Source: Drawing Out The Dragons: A Meditation on Art, Destiny, and the Power of Choice

“Just because someone does not love you as you want, it does not mean that you do not love with all his being.”

Gabriel García Márquez (1927–2014) Colombian writer

Love

“One day you will wake up & there won’t be any more time to do the things you’ve always wanted. Do it now.”

Paulo Coelho (1947) Brazilian lyricist and novelist

Time, Good Morning, Cute

“I, had an excellent instructor. One that you currently have locked up. If you want to talk about skills going to waste, then go look in your own jail.”

Richelle Mead book Spirit Bound

Source: Spirit Bound

“You're still here. No beer. I'm not corrupting a minor."
"Buta minor," she pointed out. "At least for beer."
"Yeah, and by the way, how much does it suck that I'm an adult if I kill somebody, and I'm not if I want a beer?”

Rachel Caine book Glass Houses

Source: Glass Houses

Way, Beer

“Changing the world is good for those who want their names in books. But being happy, that is for those who write their names in the lives of others, and hold the hearts of others as the treasure most dear.”

Orson Scott Card book Children of the Mind

Source: Children of the Mind

Happiness, Books, World, Change

“If kids stay up late, it's very bad for their brain development… they said that on TV…. You want to become a stupid girl, Yuuki?”

Matsuri Hino Japanese manga artist

Source: Vampire Knight, Vol. 1

Stupidity, Girl

“We were all brought up to want things and maybe the world isn't big enough for all that wanting. I don't know. I don't know anything”

John Updike book Rabbit Redux

Source: Rabbit Redux

World

“Italian men are like show poodles. Sometimes they look so good I want to applaud.”

Elizabeth Gilbert book Eat, Pray, Love

Source: Eat, Pray, Love

Men

“If you do the things you need to do when you need to do them, then someday you can do the things you want do when you want to do them.”

John C. Maxwell (1947) American author, speaker and pastor

Source: The 15 Invaluable Laws of Growth: Live Them and Reach Your Potential

“Perhaps as you went along you did learn something. I did not care what it was all about. All I wanted to know was how to live in it. Maybe if you found out how to live in it you learned from that what it was all about.”

Ernest Hemingway book The Sun Also Rises

Variant: I did not care what it was all about. All I wanted to know was how to live in it. Maybe if you found out how to live in it you learned from that what is was all about.
Source: The Sun Also Rises

Learning

“He hadn't stopped wanting love. He had simply, somehow, stopped looking.”

Cassandra Clare (1973) American author

Source: What to Buy the Shadowhunter Who Has Everything

Love

“When we're focused on what we want, things begin to slot perfectly into place.”

Paulo Coelho book Aleph

Source: Aleph

“So imagine that the lovely moon is playing just for you - everything makes music if you really want it to.”

Giles Andreae (1966) British artist, poet

Love, Music, Imagination

“Life isn't nearly as stable as we want it to be.”