“There’s only one thing worse than not satisfying a desire. And that is not to feel any desire.”

“I tell myself: There is only one true thing in our world, to satisfy one's heart, to feel and go to the bottom of all one's feelings, to desire and go to the bottom of all one's desires. Finally to live one's life, one's sincere life outside of all lies and all conventions before sinking into unavoidable nothingness.”

“desires,” I mean things we feel that we need or want very strongly. There’s an element of passion in the experience of desire”

“I can only conclude that worse than hunger or thirst, worse than being unemployed, unhappy in love or defeated and in despair, far worse than any of all those things, is feeling that no one, absolutely no one, cares about us.”

“I wonder what it feels like to have no desires left because you have satisfied them all, smothered them with money even before they are born. Is an existence without desire very desirable? And is the poverty of desire better than rank poverty itself?”

“I wasn't sure what desire looked like, but right now, looking at Oscar, I had a feeling desire was staring directly at me. And I wanted to be the one to satisfy it.”