Colette (1873–1954,) fully Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette, also Colette Willy, was a French writer who produced some of the most memorable female characters in literature. She was a novelist, short-story writer, journalist, essayist, memoirist, actress, and music-hall performer. Her best novels, mainly concerned with feminine independence in experiencing the joys and sorrows of love, are extraordinary for their command of sensual description.
Born in Saint-Sauveur-en-Puisaye, Burgundy, Colette ghost-wrote her early novels, including the first four Claudine novels (Claudine à l’école (1900,) Claudine à Paris (1901,) Claudine en ménage (1902,) and Claudine s’en va (1903,)) using her first husband’s pseudonym, Willy. From 1904 (the end of their association) to 1916 she wrote under the name ‘Colette Willy.’
In 1906, Colette appeared in music halls in dance and mime, and out of this period came La Vagabonde (1910; The Vagabond, 1955) and L’Envers du Music-hall (1913; Music-Hall Sidelights, 1957.) She also became the mistress of the actress Mathilde “Missy” de Morny—Colette wrote Les Vrilles de la vigne (1908; Tendrils of the Vine) about her affair with Missy.
Colette is one of the most prolific literary geniuses of the modern era and is recognized as one of the great stylists of the French language. Her utmost strength as a writer is an exact sensory evocation of sounds, smells, tastes, textures, and colors of her world. Her most famous novels include Chéri (1920,) La Fin de Chéri (1926; The Last of Chéri, 1932,) la Chatte (1933; The Cat, 1936) and Gigi (1944.)
Colette is the subject of numerous biographies, songs, and films, including the biopic Colette (2018) starring Keira Knightley.
More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Colette
There is nothing that gives more assurance than a mask.
—Colette
No temptation can ever be measured by the value of its object.
—Colette
Topics: Temptation
On this narrow planet, we have only the choice between two unknown worlds. One of them tempts us—ah! what a dream, to live in that!—the other stifles us at the first breath.
—Colette
Topics: Choice
Real poverty is lack of books.
—Colette
Topics: Poverty
But just as delicate fare does not stop you from craving for saveloys, so tried and exquisite friendship does not take away your taste for something new and dubious.
—Colette
Topics: Friends and Friendship
Researchers, with science as their authority, will be able to cut Animals up, alive, into small pieces, drop them from a great height to see if they are shattered by the fall, or deprive them of sleep for sixteen days and nights continuously for the purposes of an iniquitous monograph… Animal trust, undeserved faith, when at last will you turn away from us? Shall we never tire of deceiving, betraying, tormenting animals before they cease to trust us?
—Colette
Topics: Science
My true friends have always given me that supreme proof of devotion, a spontaneous aversion for the man I loved.
—Colette
Topics: Friends and Friendship
To a poet, silence is an acceptable response, even a flattering one.
—Colette
Topics: Poets, Poetry
You do not notice changes in what is always before you.
—Colette
Topics: Change
The writer who loses his self-doubt, who gives way as he grows old to a sudden euphoria, to prolixity, should stop writing immediately: the time has come for him to lay aside his pen.
—Colette
Topics: Writing, Authors & Writing, Writers
Can it be that chance has made me one of those women so immersed in one man that, whether they are barren or not, they carry with them to the grave the shriveled innocence of an old maid?
—Colette
Shall we never have done with that cliche, so stupid that it could only be human, about the sympathy of animals for man when he is unhappy? Animals love happiness almost as much as we do. A fit of crying disturbs them, they’ll sometimes imitate sobbing, and for a moment they’ll reflect our sadness. But they flee unhappiness as they flee fever, and I believe that in the long run they are capable of boycotting it.
—Colette
Topics: Animals
A happy childhood is poor preparation for human contacts.
—Colette
Topics: Childhood, Experience
Music is love in search of a word.
—Colette
Topics: One liners, Music
Time spent with cats is never wasted.
—Colette
Topics: Time, Cats
It’s nothing to be born ugly. Sensibly, the ugly woman comes to terms with her ugliness and exploits it as a grace of nature. To become ugly means the beginning of a calamity, self-willed most of the time.
—Colette
Topics: Appearance
The true traveler is he who goes on foot, and even then, he sits down a lot of the time.
—Colette
Topics: Travel
Sit down and put down everything that comes into your head and then you’re a writer. But an author is one who can judge his own stuff’s worth, without pity, and destroy most of it.
—Colette
Topics: Authors & Writing, Writing
The woman who thinks she is intelligent demands equal rights with men. A woman who is intelligent does not.
—Colette
Topics: Intellectuals, Intelligence
What a wonderful life I’ve had! I only wish I’d realized it sooner.
—Colette
And what a delight it is to make friends with someone you have despised.
—Colette
Topics: Friendship, Friends and Friendship
Jealousy is not at all low, but it catches us humbled and bowed down, at first sight.
—Colette
Topics: Jealousy
You will do foolish things, but do them with enthusiasm.
—Colette
Topics: Enthusiasm, Mistakes
One keeps forgetting old age up to the very brink of the grave.
—Colette
Topics: Aging, Age
A pretty little collection of weaknesses and a terror of spiders are our indispensable stock-in-trade with the men.
—Colette
Topics: Men & Women, Men, Women
We only do well the things we like doing.
—Colette
Topics: Success
I believe there are more urgent and honorable occupations than the incomparable waste of time we call suffering.
—Colette
Topics: Adversity
Total absence of humor renders life impossible.
—Colette
You must not pity me because my sixtieth year finds me still astonished. To be astonished is one of the surest ways of not growing old too quickly.
—Colette
Topics: Aging, Age
In the matter of furnishing, I find a certain absence of ugliness far worse than ugliness.
—Colette
Topics: Home
Look for a long time at what pleases you, and a longer time at what pains you.
—Colette
Topics: Pleasure
There is no need to waste pity on young girls who are having their moments of disillusionment, for in another moment they will recover their illusion.
—Colette
Topics: Children
The lovesick, the betrayed, and the jealous all smell alike.
—Colette
It is wise to apply the oil of refined politeness to the mechanisms of friendship.
—Colette
Topics: Manners
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