Quotes about want
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“You don't become what you want, you become what you believe.”

Oprah Winfrey (1954) American businesswoman, talk show host, actress, producer, and philanthropist

“She was yours, if you'd truly wanted her," Harry continued, a pitiless smile touching his lips. "But I wanted her more.”

Lisa Kleypas (1964) American writer

Source: Tempt Me at Twilight

Smile

“People usually asked her if she had a belly button. Of course she had a belly button. She couldn't explain how. She didn't really want to know.”

Rick Riordan The Mark of Athena

Source: The Mark of Athena

People

“Courting is the art of growing like mould on the one you want.”

Steven Erikson book The Crippled God

Source: The Crippled God

Art

“I hunger for your sleek laugh and your hands the color of a furious harvest. I want to eat the sunbeams flaring in your beauty.”

Pablo Neruda (1904–1973) Chilean poet

Variant: I hunger for your sleek laugh,
your hands the color of a savage harvest,
hunger for the pale stones of your fingernails,
I want to eat your skin like a whole almond.
Source: The Poetry of Pablo Neruda

Hunger, Beauty, Color

“Writing a novel is like childbirth: once you realize how awful it really is, you never want to do it again.”

Sarah Dessen book This Lullaby

Variant: She said writting novels was like childbirth: if you truly remembered how awful it got, you'd never do it again.
Source: This Lullaby

“You say my name like a lover, so soft, so sweet. I want to lick the word from your lips, sip the exhaled breath from your mouth. I want to possess you utterly. Right now. Right here.”

Elizabeth Hoyt (1970) American writer

Source: Notorious Pleasures

Lovers

“If you want to have the kind of relationship that your heart yearns for, you have to create it. You can't depend on somebody else creating it for you.”

Gary Zukav (1942) American writer and revivalist

Heart, Dependency

“You want to know what pain is? Try running out of Advil when you've got a Category Five period. I've had cramps that would make grown men beg for a bullet between the eyes."
- Jennifer, "Beauty Queens”

Libba Bray (1964) American teen writer

Source: Beauty Queens

Men, Pain, Beauty

“I said I was impressed, Martha. I'm beside myself with jealousy. What do you want me to do, throw up?”

Edward Albee Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

Source: Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

Jealousy

“You must let suffering speak, if you want to hear the truth”

Cornel West (1953) African-American philosopher and political/civil rights activist

Truth, Suffering

“I have always been a firm believer in God and the power of prayer, though to be honest, my faith has made for alist of questions I definitely want answered after I'm gone.”

Nicholas Sparks book The Notebook

Source: The Notebook

God, Faith, Question

“I don't want to cry. Everyone will make note of my tears and I'll be marked as an easy target. A weakling. I will give no one that satisfaction.”

Suzanne Collins The Hunger Games

Source: The Hunger Games

Tear, Cry

“The trouble with forgiveness is that some people don't want to be forgiven.”

Graham Joyce (1954–2014) British writer

Source: How to Make Friends with Demons

People, Forgiveness

“Chance is the pseudonym of God when he did not want to sign.”

Théophile Gautier Paris

Le hasard, c'est peut-être le pseudonyme de Dieu quand il ne veut pas signer.
One of Gautier's contributions to his collaboration with Jules Sandeau, Émile de Girardin, and Joseph Méry, La croix de Berny (Paris: Librairie Nouvelle, 1855) p. 28; Suzy Platt (ed.) Respectfully Quoted (Washington: Library of Congress, 1989) p. 38

God, Chance

“But I said that you could still want something that is very unlikely to happen.”

Mark Haddon book The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

Source: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

“I live my life you live yours. If you're clear about what u want then you can live anyway you please. I don't give a damn what people say. They can be reptile food for all I care.”

Haruki Murakami book Dance Dance Dance

Source: Dance Dance Dance

Life, People, Food

“The lower you are, the higher your mind will want to soar.”

Yann Martel (1963) Canadian author best known for the book Life of Pi

“when I think about sex, you know, I want it to feel good. Not feel good, shut up, but right. Happy, not just banging away somewhere. You know, you should not just do it to do it. You should love the guy.”

Daniel Handler book Why We Broke Up

Source: Why We Broke Up

Love, Happiness, Sex, Guy

“This is what divorce is: Taking things you no longer want from people you no longer love.”

Zadie Smith book White Teeth

Source: White Teeth (2000)

Love, People

“Oh, yes. I mean to marry him. But not because I want him to give me a life. I want to marry him to share the life I already have. The difference, I think you will find, is a significant one.”

Deanna Raybourn (1968) American writer

Source: Silent on the Moor

Life, Thinking

“I have chosen to no longer be apologetic for my femaleness and my femininity. And I want to be respected in all of my femaleness because I deserve to be.”

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie We Should All Be Feminists

Source: We Should All Be Feminists

For women

“She thought she kept seeing him because she wanted to see him," Macey explained.
"Ooooh," Bex and Liz sighed together.
"It's a by-product of very dramatic kissing," Macey went on like a doctor identifying a common side effect.”

Ally Carter book Don't Judge a Girl by Her Cover

Source: Don't Judge a Girl by Her Cover

Kiss

“You want to poof it or ride back with me?”

Jessica Bird book Lover Eternal

Source: Lover Eternal

“I want to believe there is a somebody out there for me. I want to believe that I exist to be there for that somebody.”

Rachel Cohn (1968) American writer

Source: Dash & Lily's Book of Dares

“There is only one sin god will not forgive Boss, and that is to deny a woman who is in wanting ~ Zorba”

Nikos Kazantzakis book Zorba the Greek

Source: Zorba the Greek

God, Forgiveness

“The very existence of flamethrowers proves that sometime, somewhere, someone said to themselves, 'You know, I want to set those people over there on fire, but I’m just not close enough to get the job done.”

George Carlin (1937–2008) American stand-up comedian

People

“… if you ask me whether or not I'm an atheist, I wouldn't even answer. I would first want an explanation of what it is that I'm supposed not to believe in, and I've never seen an explanation.”

Noam Chomsky (1928) american linguist, philosopher and activist

“War could bond men like a magnet, but like a magnet it could repel them, too. The things they saw, the things they did. Sometimes they just wanted to forget.”

Mitch Albom book The Five People You Meet in Heaven

Source: The Five People You Meet in Heaven

Men, War, Forgetting

“As far as we know, everyone’s right—
Strigoi don’t want to hang out in Palm Springs.”
Eddie became about one percent less tense.”

Richelle Mead Bloodlines

Source: Bloodlines

Spring

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

Louisa May Alcott book Little Women

Source: Little Women

Happiness

“He touched her face, gently, with the back of his hand. 'you disappear so completely into your head sometimes.' he said. 'i wish i could follow you.'
you do, she wanted to say, you live in my head all the time”

Cassandra Clare book City of Ashes

Source: City of Ashes

Time

“Ewwww-eee-wwww. Hey Ash, you vant to suck my blud? (Fang)
No, thanks. The last thing I want is to catch parvo from you, or some other freaky dog disease that makes me lift my leg around hydrants. (Acheron)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon Night Embrace

Source: Night Embrace

Disease, Dogs

“Valentine!"
"You mean father. I despise this modern habit of calling one's parents by their names."
"What I want to call you is a hell of a lot more unprintable than your name."
- Clary Fray and Valentine Morgenstern (City of Ashes)”

Cassandra Clare book City of Ashes

Source: City of Ashes

Hell, Parent

“This is the trouble with all happiness -all of it is built on top of something men want.”

Rick Riordan book The Sea of Monsters

Source: The Sea of Monsters

Men, Happiness

“Ammu loved her children (of course), but their wide-eyed vulnerability and their willingness to love people who didn't really love them exasperated her and sometimes made her want to hurt them-- just as an education, a precaution.”

Arundhati Roy book The God of Small Things

Source: The God of Small Things

Love, Children, People, Education

“I want you to lie to me just as sweetly as you know how for the rest of my life.”

F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896–1940) American novelist and screenwriter

Source: Gatsby Girls

Life, Lie

“There was once a big atomic bomb
That wanted to be a bullet.
His friends all asked why, when he was such a big atomic bomb, he would want to be a tiny bullet.
"I miss", he sighed, "the personal touch.”

Tuli Kupferberg (1923–2010) American anarchist, poet, publisher and musician.

Personality

“It is a good rule in life never to apologize. The right sort of people do not want apologies, and the wrong sort take a mean advantage of them.”

P.G. Wodehouse (1881–1975) English author

The Man Upstairs (1914)
Source: The Man Upstairs and Other Stories

Life, People

“Guys do ridiculous things for love." Adrian reached into his pocket and held up a pack of cigarettes. "Do you know how badly I want one of these right now? Yet I suffer, Rose. All for you.”

Richelle Mead book Spirit Bound

Source: Spirit Bound

Love, Guy, Suffering

“When a man wants to murder a tiger he calls it sport: when the tiger wants to murder him he calls it ferocity. The distinction between Crime and Justice is no greater.”

George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish playwright

#62
1900s, Maxims for Revolutionists (1903)

Justice, Sport

“if you don’t try at anything, you can’t fail… it takes back bone to lead the life you want”

Richard Yates book Revolutionary Road

Source: Revolutionary Road

Life

“Even if neither of us got what we wanted, we found freedom in the third choices.”

David Levithan The Lover's Dictionary

Source: The Lover's Dictionary

Freedom

“Not everyone wants you all the time, Jace," he said.
"Don't be ridiculous.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Bones

Source: City of Bones

Time

“There's no way around grief and loss: you can dodge all you want, but sooner or later you just have to go into it, through it, and, hopefully, come out the other side. The world you find there will never be the same as the world you left.”

Johnny Cash (1932–2003) American singer-songwriter

Source: Cash

World, Way, Loss

“The only real limitation on your abilities is the level of your desires. If you
want it badly enough, there are no limits on what you can achieve.”

Brian Tracy (1944) American motivational speaker and writer

“If you want one thing too much it’s likely to be a disappointment. The healthy way is to learn to like the everyday things, like soft beds and buttermilk—and feisty gentlemen.”

Larry McMurtry Lonesome Dove

Source: Lonesome Dove

Disappointment, Way, Learning

“Easy there," Zach said when I stumbled into him. "Now's probably not the time to get handsy. You might want to control yourself.”

Ally Carter Out of Sight, Out of Time

Source: Out of Sight, Out of Time

Time

“If you want to get rich from writing, write the sort of thing that's read by persons who move their lips when they're reading to themselves.”

Don Marquis (1878–1937) American writer

Reading, Personality

“Because people with that much spirit frighten the hell out of me. They make me want to be a better person when I know it's not possible.”

Melina Marchetta book On the Jellicoe Road

Source: On the Jellicoe Road

People, Hell, Personality

“Sometimes you fight what you are, and sometimes you give in to it. And some nights you just don’t want to fight yourself anymore, so you pick someone else to fight.”

Laurell K. Hamilton book Incubus Dreams

Source: Incubus Dreams

Fight, Night

“If you have a past with which you feel dissatisfied, then forget it, now. Imagine a new story for your life and believe in it. Focus only on the moments when you achieved what you desired, and that strength will help you to get what you want.”

Paulo Coelho book The Fifth Mountain

Source: The Fifth Mountain

Life, Feeling, Imagination, Past

“Conservative, n. A statesman enamored of existing evils, as opposed to a Liberal, who wants to replace them with others.”

Ambrose Bierce book The Devil's Dictionary

The Devil's Dictionary (1911)

Evil

“People could not get enough of what they had lost, even if they no longer wanted it.”

Meg Wolitzer book The Interestings

Source: The Interestings

People

“You don't want to be rude but you have to be careful - there are a lot of strange people out there.

(Goldman attributes this quote to Cliff Robertson.)”

William Goldman (1931–2018) American novelist, screenwriter and playwright

Source: Adventures In The Screen Trade: A Personal View of Hollywood

People, Quotes

“Those who wanted to sleep, not from fatigue but because of the nostalgia of dreams…”

Gabriel García Márquez (1927–2014) Colombian writer

Dreams, Sleep, Nostalgia

“But the question that everyone wanted answered was whether I would have the nerve and the strength to start the whole process from scratch. I said yes; otherwise I would be someone who had no dream left, and without dreams I would not want to live.”

Werner Herzog (1942) German film director, producer, screenwriter, actor and opera director

Source: Conquest of the Useless: Reflections from the Making of Fitzcarraldo

Dreams, Question

“I've never met anyone who wanted to be a terrorist. They are desperate people.”

John Perkins (1945) American author

People

“They wanted genuine intimacy, but they could not get even normally near to anyone, because they scorned to take the first steps, they scorned the triviality which forms common human intercourse.”

D.H. Lawrence book Sons and Lovers

Source: Sons and Lovers

“I'm an animal with you," he murmured. "I want to mark you. I want to possess you so completely there's no separation between us.”

Sylvia Day book Bared to You

Source: Bared to You

Animals

“You wake up one morning, those years are gone. There's a comfort in this fact perhaps. I want to think that there must be comfort in all facts we can't alter.”

Joyce Carol Oates (1938) American author

Source: I Am No One You Know: Stories

Thinking

“Bapu Gandhi said, ‘All religions are true.’ I just want to love God.”

Yann Martel book Life of Pi

Source: Life of Pi

Love, God, Religion

“Abolition of a woman's right to abortion, when and if she wants it, amounts to compulsory maternity: a form of rape by the State.”

Edward Abbey (1927–1989) American author and essayist

Maternity

“I think it happens to everyone as they grow up. You find out who you are and what you want, and then you realize that people you've known forever don't see things the way you do. And so you keep the wonderful memories, but find yourself moving on. It's perfectly normal.”

Nicholas Sparks book True Believer

Jeremy Marsh, Chapter 7, p. 113
Variant: I think it happens to everyone as they grow up. You find out who you are and what you want, and then you realize that people you've known forever don't see things the way you do. And so you keep the wonderful memories, but find yourself moving on. It's perfectly normal.
Source: 2000s, True Believer (2005)

People, Way, Memory