60 WSJ. MAGAZINE
WSJ. asks six luminaries to weigh in on a single topic. This month: Desire.
ROSAMUND
PIKE“I know there are all
kinds of healthy, whole-
some desires, but
somehow it always goes
to the forbidden in my
mind because desire has
to have an element of
unattainability about it.
It’s very interesting
when very powerful, all-
consuming desires go
to people who otherwise
considered themselves
moral people. When I
play characters in films,
I often seek out those
whose desires are differ-
ent from my own. Ex-
tremity is why we see
movies. We want to
see acted out extreme
behaviors that don’t
happen often in real life.
There’s a simple thing
that you’re taught in
drama school—not that
I went to drama school,
but I’ve picked the brains
of people who did—and
that’s to learn, what
does the character want?
To be dramatic, a
character should want
something in every
scene. You want to effect
some change, get an
answer; you want to
actually do something.”
“In reporting on black
markets and under-
worlds there’s a desire
to connect with people
and to humanize the
most stereotyped and
stigmatized elements in
our society. I’m hop-
ing that by humanizing
them we can realize
there’s so much more
that connects us than
separates us. There have
been moments where
[my crew and I] have
been in very risky situ-
ations and I should have
thought better and I
should have been more
fearful. The desire to
explore and the desire to
learn and to see what’s
behind that wall has led
me to sometimes take
unnecessary risks. The
more experience you
have, the less you’re will-
ing to take those risks or
the more prepared you
are for those situations.
But I always say that in
a fight between fear
and a desire to explore,
desire always wins.”MARIANA
VAN ZELLER“For a fiction writer, de-
sire is fundamental.
Without desire—and the
frustration of that desire
that we’re all familiar
with—there’s not going
to be any drama. In my
new novel, I wanted to
counteract some basic
stereotypes about Asian
men as not sexual, so it
was important to make
[my protagonist] this
sexualized figure. I had
a lot of fun writing about
his desire for women. At
a certain point, I realized
it’s also kind of problem-
atic the way he desires
women, and I had to
confront my own desires
because I was enjoying
looking through his eyes.
In our lives, when we feel
desire, we want to have
that desire immediately
fulfilled. But in fiction
that would be a terrible
thing to do. Writers have
to identify both the short-
and long-term desires,
then figure out ways to
prolong the fulfillment
of those desires.”VIET THANH
NGUYENSOAPBOXTHE COLUMNISTS
KIM NG
“Desire comes from
your essence, your inner
thoughts. It’s what
makes you you. I think
about my family and
the circumstances my
parents and my grand-
parents grew up in,
the sacrifices they had to
make to give their chil-
dren more opportunities
than they had. Desire
is one theme you find in
the typical immigrant
story. It’s why people
leave their families and
their countries to
find a better place. I’m
often underestimated
because of my gen-
der, size, upbringing.
All of those things
have really formed and
strengthened my
desire. Formalized pro-
gramming has helped
identify women who
are seeking to get into
baseball as well as
push them through the
pipeline. I’ve been very
involved in our divers-
ity initiatives.”FRANCIS
FUKUYAMA“The Greeks called it thy-
mos. It’s the desire for
a desire, and it says that
the deepest form of
desire is to have anoth-
er person desire you. It’s
not a desire for some-
thing. It’s not a car or a
nice house or a vacation.
There are many people
who are angry right now
because they feel they’re
not respected. They feel
that people disregard
them or look down on
them. Capitalism is very
good at fulfilling mate-
rial desires, but it’s
not so good at fulfilling
the desire for others’
desires. It also produces
a lot of inequality, and
one of the problems
with being poor is not
only the lack of materi-
al resources but the
problems it creates with
regards to respect. If
you’re poor, you’re not
remarked upon. Pol-
iticians don’t pay atten-
tion. Capitalism may be
able to satisfy some of
those material desires,
but the desire for dignity
is something different.”“Desire is the guiding
light on all things cre-
ative and personal. My
first desire when I wake
up is to see my kids and
see that they slept well.
Throughout the day
I’m wishing I was paint-
ing in the studio, and
when I am painting
I get to thinking about
everything else large
and small, whether it’s
goals I have or people
I think and care about.
In my work, the real
desire is to communi-
cate, to put things into
the world. Sometimes
I get a response, some-
times not. But art is
how I put my thoughts
in order and clear my
mind. For the last couple
of decades or so, I’ve
really been hustling,
almost trying to plant
a flag. I do like being
thrown in the fire all the
time. I don’t know
how one would operate
without desire.”KAWS
Pike is an Emmy-winning ac-
tress. She stars next in Netflix’s
I Care a Lot, out February 19.
Van Zeller is a Peabody-
winning investigative journal-
ist and the host of National
Geographic’s Trafficked
With Mariana van Zeller,
now streaming on Hulu.These interviews have been edited and condensed for clarity.Nguyen is a writer and an
English professor at the
University of Southern Califor-
nia. His next novel, The
Committed, out in March,
is a sequel to his Pulitzer-win-
ner, The Sympathizer.Ng is the general manager of
the Miami Marlins.Fukuyama is a political scien-
tist and professor at Stanford.
His books include The End of
History and The Last Man.KAWS (Brian Donnelly)
is an artist. His exhibition
KAWS: What Party is on
at the Brooklyn Museum.