Men are foolish to expect us to revere them, when, in the end, they amount to almost nothing.

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.

Like dry ground welcoming the rain, he let the solitude, silence, and loneliness soak in.

He has never told anyone this story. He doesn't mind talking to Richard, to Rafe about his past--within reason--but he doesn't mean to give away pieces of himself.

Capitalism without failure is like religion without sin. Bankruptcies and losses concentrate the mind on prudent behavior.

If you're an actor, you have to find a way to make peace with all the media attention.

Being a celebrity is a no-win situation. If you get along with your co-star you're having an affair, if you don't you're having a feud.

I found myself within a forest dark.

Chinks in America's egalitarian armor are not hard to find. Democracy is the fig leaf of elitism.

I have a strongly held belief that one of the reasons that Amazon has been successful is because we do not obsess over competitors. Instead we obsess over customers.

I love having no sense of tomorrow or yesterday.

The Senkaku islands are inherently Japanese territory. I want to show my strong determination to prevent this from changing.