Profound desire, true desire is the desire to be close to someone.

The line frames desire not as appetite, ambition, or possession, but as a relational longing—an impulse toward intimacy and presence. “Profound” and “true” suggest a hierarchy of wants: surface desires chase objects or outcomes, while deeper desire seeks closeness to another person (or, by extension, to what one loves, values, or considers sacred). Read this way, the quote aligns with Coelho’s recurring emphasis on love as a guiding force that reorients the self away from control and toward connection. It implies that the most authentic human motivation is communion—being near, known, and emotionally attuned—rather than acquisition.