English Translation
He always wanted to call attention to himself.
Why isn’t “querer” in the imperfect here, since it refers to a past habitual state? Thank you!
It seems like a mistake to me. I’m struggling to find a reason why it shouldn’t be, as you point out, “quería”.
I was thinking it was a short time, maybe a meeting, and todo el tiempo defines a duration, which would call for the preterite. 
As a standalone sentence, yeah, probably (eg. as you suggest, “Quiso llamar la atención durante toda la reunión”).
But as a translation of the english sentence mnoelle had doubts about, I don’t quite see a context in which the perfect simple “quiso”, would fit, as (to me, at least) “He always wanted” suggests a repetition, not just a concise time period. As mnoelle puts it, a past habitual state
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