Quotes from Colette

Es gibt im Leben nur drei große Ereignisse: den Tod, die Berühmtheit oder die Liebe. Mein lieber blauer Leutnant, welches von den dreien wird mir wohl als erstes auf den Kopf oder ins Herz fallen?

I am perfectly well aware that May has not a will that overcomes mine, but an inner mechanism superior to my own, a whirling driving-power that is never slowed down by thoughts. She has taught me that one can dine without being hungry, talk without saying anything, laugh from sheer force of habit, drink out of human respect and live with a man in a state of complete servility while maintaining all the appearances of frantic independence.

Es horrible pensar, como me pasa cada vez que empiezo un libro, que ya no tengo, que nunca he tenido talento alguno.

car écrire ne conduit qu'à écrire.

Le monde m'est nouveau à mon réveil, chaque matin.

When does one stop writing? . . . I thought in the past that the work of writing was like other tasks; the tool is laid down and one cries out in delight: 'Finished!' and you clap your hands, from where there rain down grains of sand that first one believed to be precious . . . It is then that you read in the outlines traced by the grains of sand the words: 'To be continued . . .

Philippe did not know how to express such a thought as: 'All too few are the occasions in life when, with mind content, eyes surfeited with beauty, heart light, retentive, and almost empty, there comes a moment for the senses to be filled to overflowing: I shall remember this as just such a moment.

Those who are not imitated always get disappointed.

Today, I dressed my wound, and nursed my hurt in a sheltered place.

A qui vit aux champs et se sert de ses yeux, tout devient miraculeux et simple. To those who dwell in the fields and use their eyes, everything becomes miraculous and simple

No one has ever talked to me as he did of the color blue or of golden hair curling like shavings around a reddened ear ...

Wo die Moral sich nicht überall einnistet. Ich habe einen Sittenrichter geboren.

Nulla porta-lo so- all'amore. E' lui che si butta di traverso sulla vostra strada. La sbarra per sempre o se se ne allontana lascia la via sconvolta, sfondata. Soltanto nel dolore una donna è capace di superare la mediocrità

As it happens, there are three things in particular that suit me very ill: feathered hats, general ideas, and earrings.

Je ne parviens pas à m'expliquer comment la joie de mes réveils s'assombrit graduellement, dans le jour tombant, jusqu'à la mélancolie et au recroquevillement farouche.

She is made for moderate emotions, ash-blonde sorrow.

Qui t'en empêche, ô Toi qui règnes sur ma vie, Toi qui peux presque tout, Toi qui, d'un plissement volontaire de tes sourcils, rapproches dans le ciel les nuages ?

I'd rather be miserable with you than without you.' - Colette, Gigi

Je me demande, entre parenthèses, pour qui vous la gardez? Pour un employé à deux mille quatre qui l'épousera et qui lui fera quatre enfants en trois ans?

Il emportait un malaise qu'il connaissait trop bien, l'agacement, la gêne de ne jamais exprimer ce qu'il eût voulu exprimer, de ne jamais rencontrer la personne à qui il devait confier un aveu indéfini, un secret qui eût tout changé et dépouillé de son signe néfaste.

He varied his theme, embellished it with vocalizations , fell in love with his voice, became this distraught, intoxicated and panting singer, whom one listens to with the unbearable desire to see him sing.-Colette, Les Vrilles de la Vigne

But when he said in his heart of hearts "Vinca!", the name inseparably linked with his friend, evoked the memory of sand, warm to kneel on, or trickling out between fingers that held it in a tight squeeze...

I shall have everything ... and I shall lean over the edge of a white terrace smothered with the roses of my gardens and shall see the lords of the earth, the wanderers, pass by!'" - Colette, La Vagabonde

When are a 'lady on your own,' in other words the landlords' abomination, outcast and terror all rolled into one, you take what you find, lodge where you may, and put up with newly plastered walls.