- Colette: [from trailer] My name is Gabrielle Colette and the hand that holds the pen writes history.
- Willy: People love to talk. They praise you to your face. Then the moment you turn around there's knives in your back.
- Colette: You hurt and you hurt and you hurt, and you think that by saying "I'm a man, that's what men do", you clear it all away.
- Willy: Do remember, if a book bores you you can throw it away, if a painting is too garish you can close your eyes, but bad theater, it's like dentistry. You're compelled to stay in your chair having your skull drilled until the entire grisly procedure is over.
- Colette: When you raise your eyelids it's as if you were taking off all my clothes. Don't look away. Look at me. Look at me looking at you.
- Colette: You found me when I knew nothing. You moulded me to your own designs, to your desires. And you thought that I could never break free.
- [last lines]
- Colette: Yes, this is the dangerous, lucid hour. Now, whenever I despair, I no longer expect my end, but some bit of luck, some commonplace little miracle which, like a glittering link, will mend again the necklace of my days.