anthony

The first image is text that reads:

'When you have wanted to be wanted all your life, and then somebody wants you, it feels like cheating. It feels like eating something you're not supposed to eat, and you eat it too quickly, always afraid of your lover walking in and seeing it smeared all over your face, red, the damning evidence of your hunger to be wanted, and nobody wants to love someone too desperate to be loved, so you do your best not to be desperate, you walk in the harsh January sun with your hands freezing in your pockets and try to look like someone who doesn't want anything too much. Here's the thing, you want everything so much you're like a ravine in the shape of a woman, taking in anything that seems like it could be love.'

The second image is a quote by Silas Denver Melvin that reads:

'You want to be loved if only to prove it possible: to tell the world that someone saw you as a conquest and came back alive. That above all else, you are worthy of the risk, the effort. You want someone to serve you the evidence: you are not as damned as you think you are. You are not as damned as you think you are.' The repeated line is italicized.

The third image is a post by tumblr user chaandajaan that reads:

'But the thing I will never admit to anyone who's met me is how desperately I want to be loved. How I want someone to hold my wrists and kiss my palms and smile at me, and want me, I want to be wanted and I dont know how long poetry or songs will substitute for being wanted.'

The fourth image is a single line of bold text, which is a quote by Richard Silken from the poem Birds Hover the Trampled Field, that reads:

'The enormity of my desire disgusts me.'

The fifth image is a quote by Emily Palermo. The text is in all capital letters and reads:

'I wanted to be loved so desperately that my fingers shook with it. I am not beautiful, but I could be.'

The sixth image is a quote by Georges Bataille that reads:

'People always think we look for love at our lowest to distract us. I am convinced we do it because we want someone to look us in the eye, to look our ugly in the eye and still choose us. I didn't want to be a distraction, I wanted you to see a mess and still find me worthy of love, to tell me that you could still love me anyway.' The text after 'I didn't want to be a distraction' is highlighted in blue.

The seventh image is a quote by Sylvia Plath, from The Unabridged Journals page one hundred sixty-five that reads:

'I want so obviously, so desperately to be loved, and to be capable of love.'

The eighth image is a quote by Frank O'Hara that reads:

'It's a summer day, and I want to be wanted more than anything else in the world.'

The ninth image is a quote by Heather Havrilesky that reads:

'This haunted house you're creating is forged from your shame.'

The tenth, and final, image is a quote from Lucille Clifton that reads:

'Maybe I should have wanted less. Maybe I should have ignored the bowl in me burning to be filled. Maybe I should have wanted less.'