It was not the feeling of completeness I so needed, but the feeling of not being empty.

The line distinguishes between two different longings: an idealized “completeness” (a finished, perfect wholeness) and the more basic human need to feel internally inhabited—connected, purposeful, or emotionally alive. It suggests that what drives the speaker is not perfection or total fulfillment, but relief from hollowness: the dread of numbness, isolation, or meaninglessness. The phrasing implies a corrective insight gained through experience—perhaps after chasing grand forms of fulfillment and finding them inadequate. In that sense, the quote captures a modern, psychological register of desire: not to be “complete,” but to be present to oneself, to have enough feeling, attachment, or narrative to avoid emptiness.