Joyce Carol Oates Want Quotations

An actress wants to be seen. An actress wants to be loved. By multitudes of people, not just one lone man.

At all crucial moments in our lives we want to speak without knowing what to say.

Childhood is the province of the imagination and when I immerse myself in it, I re-create it as it was, as it could have been, as I wanted - and didn't want - it to be.

Why should I want what's good for me?' Beatrice asked him, smiling. 'Is that what you want for yourself - only what's good for you?

I do what I want to do. It was a brash statement of(her)girlhood. Now she was an adult, the boast seemed quaint. For rarely do you know what you want. Even after you've done it you can't say clearly if that was what you'd wanted or just something that happened to you, like weather.

All actors are whores. They want only one thing: to seduce you.

Read widely, and without apology. Read what you want to read, not what someone tells you you should read.

I want to tell you that I love you I want to tell you that I love you I want to tell you that I love I love I love I love but you do not.

It is not her body that he wants but it is only through her body that he can take possession of another human being, so he must labor upon her body, he must enter her body, to make his claim.