Quotes from Michel Houellebecq

Mais seule la littérature peut vous donner cette sensation de contact avec un autre esprit humain

Were they ready to give up everything for their country? I felt ready to give up everything, not really for my country, but in general.

Hidden all day in impenetrable black burkas, rich Saudi women transformed themselves by night into birds of paradise with their corsets, their see-through bras, their G-strings with multicolored lace and rhinestones. They were exactly the opposite of Western women, who spent their days dressed up and looking sexy to

The map is more interesting than the territory.

impossible for people who have lived and prospered under a given social system to imagine the point of view of those who feel it offers them nothing, and who can contemplate its destruction without any particular dismay.

A life lived in pursuit of a goal leaves little time for reminiscence.

Nefericirea noastr? nu atinge apogeul decât atunci când am întrez?rit, îndeajuns de aproape, posibilitatea practic? a fericirii.

Annabelle ne renonçait pas; pour elle, le visage de Michel ressemblait au commentaire d'un autre monde. Vers la même époque elle lut la Sonate à Kreutzer, crut un instant le comprendre au travers de ce livre.

Gdy przejechaliÅ›my dwa kilometry, dotarÅ'o do mnie, ?e tym razem ju? naprawdÄ™ nie mam nic do czytania; do koÅ"ca wycieczki bÄ™dÄ™ musiaÅ' prze?y? bez absolutnie ?adnego tekstu drukowanego, którym bym siÄ™ mógÅ' odizolowa?. RozejrzaÅ'em siÄ™ dookoÅ'a, serce zacz??o mi szybciej bi?, Å›wiat zewnÄ™trzny wydaÅ' mi siÄ™ nagle o wiele bli?szy.

You're what," I asked, "Catholic? Fascist? Both?" It just popped out. I was out of practice with intellectuals of the right—I couldn't remember how to behave. All at once, in the distance, we heard a kind of sustained crackling. "What was that, do you think?" asked Alice. "It sounded like shooting," she added, hesitantly. We fell silent

Nothing - not even death - seems worse than the prospect of living in a broken body.

Nous voulons retourner dans l'ancienne demeure Où nos pères ont vécu sous l'aile d'un archange, Nous voulons retrouver cette morale étrange Qui sanctifiait la vie jusqu'à la dernière heure.

Este o senza?ie stranie: s? sim?i cum via?a ?i se schimb? total; e suficient s? stai pe loc, s? nu faci nimic, s? percepi senza?ia de schimbare.

No doubt the Romans had felt that theirs was an eternal civilization, right up to the moment their empire fell apart. Were they suicides, too?

När man älskar livet läser man inte.

We feel nostalgia for a place simply because we've lived there; whether we lived well or badly scarcely matters. The past is always beautiful. So, for that matter, is the future. Only the present hurts, and we carry it around like an abscess of suffering, our companion between two infinities of happiness and peace. Gradually

In all of human history there may never have been a mind as brilliant as Isaac Newton's—just think what an amazing, unheard-of intellectual effort it took to discover a single law that accounted for the fall of earthly bodies and the movement of the planets! Well, Newton believed in God.

Seule la littérature peut vous permettre d'entrer en contact avec l'esprit d'un mort, de manière plus directe, plus complète et plus profonde que ne le ferait même la conversation avec un ami – aussi profonde, aussi durable que soit une amitié, jamais on ne se livre, dans une conversation, aussi complètement qu'on ne le fait devant une feuille vide, s'adressant à un destinataire inconnu.

Toynbee's idea that civilizations die not by murder but by suicide.

But only literature can put you in touch with another human spirit, as a whole, with all its weaknesses and grandeurs, its limitations, its pettinesses, its obsessions, its beliefs; with whatever it finds moving, interesting, exciting, or repugnant.

Sexual pleasure was not only superior, in refinement and violence, to all the other pleasures life had to offer; it was not only the one pleasure with which there is no collateral damage to the organism, but which on the contrary contributes to maintaining it at its highest level of vitality and strength; it was in truth the sole pleasure, the sole objective of human existence

And I no longer even know where the source is; at present, everything looks the same. The landscape is more and more gentle, amiable, joyous; my skin hurts. I am at the heart of the abyss. I feel my skin again as a frontier, and the external world as a crushing weight. The impression of separation is total; from now on I am imprisoned within myself. It will not take place, the sublime fusion; the goal of life is missed. It is two in the afternoon.

TotuÈ™i, în anumite circumstanÈ›e, extrem de rare – creÈ™tinii vorbesc de minuni ale harului – o nou? und? de coeren?? apare È™i se propag? în creier; un nou comportament apare, temporar sau definitiv, determinat de un sistem total diferit de oscilaÈ›ii armonice; atunci se observ? ceea ce numim un act liber.

Intimacy isn't something men talk about.