To love is to live on the precipice.

Debauchery conceived of as a kind of ascetic experience is not new, either for men or for women, but until Story of O no…

— Anne Desclos

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

— 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…

— Anne Desclos

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

— Anne Desclos

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

— Anne Desclos

I found that stiffly saluting member, of which he was so proud, rather frightening, and to tell the truth I found his pride slightly…

— Anne Desclos

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

— Anne Desclos

Is O used by René and Sir Stephen, or does she in fact use them, and...all those irons and chains and obligatory debauchery, to…

— Anne Desclos

I think I have a repressed bent for the military, I like discipline without question, specific schedules and duties.

— 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

I wrote it alone, for him, to interest him, to please him, to occupy him. I wasn't young, nor particularly pretty. I needed something…

— 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…

— Anne Desclos

Who I am finally, if not the long silent part of someone, the secret and nocturnal part which has never betrayed itself in public…

— Anne Desclos

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

— Anne Desclos

On earth where love lives, Also the place where dilemma exists.

— BuddhaChild