Read an Excerpt
Until you’ve lost your reputation, you never realize what a burden it was or what freedom really is.
—Epic novelist Margaret Mitchell. Evidently the antebellum South wasn’t the only thing that was Gone with the Wind
In my sex fantasy, nobody ever loves me for my mind.
—Sizzling screenwriter Nora Ephron.
My own, or other people’s?
—Peggy Guggenheim, exceedingly amorous art patron, in response to the question “How many husbands have you had?”
A different kind of dame gets a different kind of fame. As far as I’m concerned, morality is just a word that describes the current fashion of conduct. It seems to me that basically a woman who sells her emotions in bed, often pretending love and affection, is as great an actress as one who sells her beauty and emotions to the camera or the public. Personally, I trust most prostitutes further than the actresses I’ve known.
—Sally Stanford, self-made madam and vice-mayor of Sausalito, California.
I never made any money till I took off my pants.
—Exotic dancer Sally Rand, famous for her well-placed fans
I ran the wrong kind of business, but I did it with integrity.
—Sidney Biddle Barrows, the so-called “Mayflower Madam.”
The world wants to be cheated. So cheat. Something is wrong here: sex has been with us since the human race began its existence, yet I would estimate that 90 percent of human beings still suffer from enormous inhibitions in this area.
—Xaviera Hollander, a.k.a. "The Happy Hooker." Her bawdy Pill-era bestsellers provided millions of junior-high virgins with useful information about mate-swapping, erotic encounters with the opposite sex, and amusing stunts to perform on public escalators.
