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About this quote

What does it mean?
Desire shrinks the world and makes everything small compared to the magnitude of what one wants.
In plain terms
When you want something badly, nothing else matters and the world feels tiny.
What can you take from it?
Desire reshapes your perception of reality.

Where it applies

  • ambition
  • love
  • addiction

Putting it to work

  • identify core desires
  • avoid desire-driven tunnel vision

Questions to consider

  • How does want change what you see?
  • Is desire good or bad?

Another view

It overstates desire's power to ignore physical reality.

More from Willa Cather

  1. I tell you there is no such thing as creative hate!

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  2. Every artist makes himself born. It is very much harder than the other time, and longer.

    Permalink to quote #24
  3. We come and go, but the land is always here. And the people who love it and understand it are the people who own it - for a little while.

    Permalink to quote #21

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