280 Quotes by Michel Houellebecq

The absence of the will to live is, alas, not sufficient to make one want to die.

A fi artist, în ochii lui însemna înainte de toate să fii supus. Supus unor mesaje misterioase, imprevizibile, care, în lipsa de ceva mai bun și în absența oricărei credințe religioase, se cuveneau calificate drept intuiții; niște mesaje poruncitoare, care se afirmau într-o manieră imperioasă, categorică, fără a-ți lăsa nici cea mai mică posibilitate de a te sustrage - sau doar cu riscul de a-ți pierde orice noțiune de integritate și de respect față de tine însuți.

Anything can happen in life, especially nothing.

To love a book is, above all, to love its author: we want to meet him again, we want to spend our days with him.

An entire life spent reading would have fulfilled my every desire; I already knew that at the age of seven. The texture of the world is painful, inadequate; unalterable, or so it seems to me. Really, I believe that an entire life spent reading would have suited me best. Such a life has not been granted me...

The world outside had its own rules, and those rules were not human.

La solitude à deux est l'enfer consenti.

Life is painful and disappointing. It is useless, therefore, to write new realistic novels. We generally know where we stand in relation to reality and don’t care to know any more.

I’ve more or less finished with the world as narration – the world of novels and films, the world of music as well. I’m now only interested in the world as juxtaposition – that of poetry and painting.