I wasn't young, I wasn't pretty, it was necessary to find other weapons.

A truly submissive woman is to be treasured, cherished and protected for it is only she who can give a man the gift of dominance.

O felt that her mouth was beautiful, since her lover condescended to thrust himself into it . . .

Lovers and mystics are familiar with this sense of grandeur, this taste of joy - in abandoning oneself to the will of others.

To love is to live on the precipice.

Woman ... is the divine object, violated, endlessly sacrificed yet always reborn, whose only joy, achieved through a subtle interplay of images, lies in contemplation of herself.

I think that submissiveness can [be] and is a formidable weapon, which women will use as long as it isn't taken from them.

Story of O is a fairy tale for another world, a world where some part of me lived for a long time, a world that no longer exists except between the covers of a book.

I wrote 'The story of O' alone, for Dominique Aury, to interest him, to please him, to occupy him. I wasn't young, nor particularly pretty. I needed something which might interest a man like him.

You have to get past the pleasure stage, until you reach the stage of tears.

By my makeup and temperament I wasn't really prey to physical desires. Everything happened in my head.

Happiness makes up in height for what it lacks in length.

Some people might say that I think too highly of you just because I worship the water you walk on.

If everybody floated with the tide of talk, placidity would soon end in stagnation. It is the strong backward stroke which stirs the ripples, and gives animation and variety.

I don't think it's any secret I've never been an advocate for the Affordable Care Act.

Interesting" he said. "You know, Simon never mentioned that his roommate was a werewolf.

I think we can achieve meaningful change, but only if we demand that the institutions themselves change their behavior.

People pay to see movies with women looking beautiful, but I think there will be a place for me to play women looking my own age.

The worst thing a government can do now in Spain is to do nothing.

A poem really does recreate the language, and that's what it has to do. A true poem, I think, has to give you that shiver. That, "yes, it's never been said quite that way before."

I listen a lot to rap, and I'm inspired to take it, to use it in another way, to get the message across.