Secrets of the Flesh Quotes

“my true friends always gave me this supreme proof of attachment: a spontaneous aversion to the man I loved.”
― Judith Thurman, Secrets of the Flesh: A Life of Colette

“To cool off mind and body, she went rowing on the lake in the Bois. “O healthy exercise, distract me from such thoughts that might unsettle a sturdy creature of my kind!”
― Judith Thurman, Secrets of the Flesh: A Life of Colette

“Nothing remains to me except to be someone who has never acted in her own best interest, and who has never known a greedy passion except one: to cherish.”
― Judith Thurman, Secrets of the Flesh: A Life of Colette

“He has shown himself to be someone who is worthy of my gratitude. For you understand, my child”—Colette was again writing to Germaine Patat—“everything I’m not speaking of in this letter.… Distance and reflexion have been working on me, and I am obliged to observe that I’ve been brought to this place by a well-prepared train of events, which horrifies me. I also know that the house I shall return to will be empty.”
― Judith Thurman, Secrets of the Flesh: A Life of Colette

“It is true that most of these men were closeted transgressors, while Colette played out her revolt in public. They were secretly attracted by her vital force. Their languor and formality were alien to her—but not their fetish worship of human beauty.”
― Judith Thurman, Secrets of the Flesh: A Life of Colette