My interest in desperation lies only in that sometimes I find myself having become desperate. Very seldom do I start out that way. I can see of course that, in the abstract, thinking and all activity is rather desperate.
Willem de Kooning

Niger is not an isolated island of desperation. It lies within a sea of problems across Africa - particularly the 'forgotten emergencies' in poor countries or regions with little strategic or material appeal.
Desmond Tutu

Now people want what the movie was about, which is violent comedy. And that's really what The Aristocrats is based on - what will a family do out of desperation.
Bob Saget

Nowadays men lead lives of noisy desperation.
James Thurber

People need motivation to do anything. I don't think human beings learn anything without desperation.
Jim Carrey

So, how to stay inside the world of entertainment without actually getting another job? I felt the only logical answer was to become a novelist. So I wrote the first book - driven by some very real feelings of desperation - and it worked.
Lee Child

The abjection of our political situation is the only true challenge today. Only facing up to this situation in all its desperation can help us get out of it.
Jean Baudrillard

The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.
Henry David Thoreau

The people at the record company had asked me if I could write a song about my life, my relationship with God, and where I'm from. Well, I can't write a song on purpose, my songs come in a moment of inspiration or desperation.
Billy Ray Cyrus

The tragedy of it is that nobody sees the look of desperation on my face. Thousands and thousands of us, and we're passing one another without a look of recognition.
Henry Miller

Today, for a Jew who writes in the German language, it is totally impossible to make a living. In no group do I see as much misery, disappointment, desperation and hopelessness as in Jewish writers who write in German.
Stefan Zweig

We all need money, but there are degrees of desperation.
Anthony Burgess

Well it's a drastic procedure by your standards and mine, but for the people who are living in desperation perhaps the best way to understand it is that it seems no more drastic to them than circumcision.
John Money

Well, yeah, but I probably wasn't as open about my desperation.
Edie Falco

Wheels of fire, cosmic, rich, full-bodied honest victories over desperation.
Thomas Merton

Who knows where inspiration comes from. Perhaps it arises from desperation. Perhaps it comes from the flukes of the universe, the kindness of the muses.
Amy Tan

You might as well ask why a middle-aged man with no criminal record might put a paper bag over his head and rob a bank. I acted out of personal desperation.
Aldrich Ames