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“When it comes to literature, wishes are important to keep in mind. One of the first things I learned when I started writing stories was that characters must desire something. And if we unpack the word desire, from the Latin desiderare, meaning, literally, away from the stars, we learn that every desire implies a distance, an absence, a lack of satisfaction. That longing, that empty space, is where the volcanic potential of the optative genoito resides.” — Jhumpa Lahiri

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When it comes to literature, wishes are important to keep in mind. One of the first things I learned when I started writing stories was that characters must desire something. And if we unpack the word desire, from the Latin desiderare, meaning, literally, away from the stars, we learn that every desire implies a distance, an absence, a lack of satisfaction. That longing, that empty space, is where the volcanic potential of the optative genoito resides.
— Jhumpa Lahiri