Desire Quote by Walker Percy
““Comes again the longing, the desire that has no name. Is it for Mrs. Prouty, for a drink, for both: for a party, for youth, for the good times, for dear good drinking and fighting comrades, for football-game girls in the fall with faces like flowers? Comes the longing and it has to do with being fifteen and fifty and with the winter sun striking down into a brick-yard and on clapboard walls rounded off with old hard blistered paint and across a doorsill onto linoleum. Desire has a smell: of cold linoleum and gas heat and the sour piebald bark of crepe myrtle. A good-humored thirty-five-year-old lady takes the air in a back lot in a small town.””
About This Quote
Source Novel: The Moviegoer, 1961
The passage evokes yearning and nostalgia, linking desire to places, ages, and sensory memories.
In simple terms: Longing ties to memories and sensory details.
Key Takeaway
Embrace nostalgia while staying present.
Themes
nostalgia
desire
memory
Mood
melancholic
contemplative
Type
literary
philosophical
When to use this quote
- midlife reflection
- college reminiscing
- creative writing
- urban exploration
Key Concepts
existential longing
sensory imagery
Questions to Reflect On
- What does this longing reveal about self?
- How can we balance memory and growth?
A Different Perspective
Nostalgia may hinder forward action.
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