Debauchery conceived of as a kind of ascetic experience is not new, either for men or for women, but until Story of O no woman to my knowledge had sa…

- Anne Desclos

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

- Anne Desclos

The voluntary captive The speechless the prisoner Which I hide in my very depths.

- Anne Desclos

A man in love ... is the master, so it seems, but only if his lady friend permits it! The need to interchange the roles of slave and master for the s…

- Anne Desclos

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 …

- Anne Desclos

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 c…

- Anne Desclos

O was infinitely more moving when her body was covered with marks, of whatever kind, if only because these marks made it impossible for her to cheat …

- Anne Desclos

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

- Anne Desclos

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

- Anne Desclos