280 Quotes by Michel Houellebecq

... ностальгия ведь отнюдь не эстетическое чувство, она даже не связана со счастливыми воспоминаниями, мы испытываем ностальгию по какому-то месту просто потому, что там жили, хорошо ли, плохо ли - не важно, прошлое всегда прекрасно, будущее, кстати, тоже; причиняет боль только настоящее, и мы носим его в себе, словно некий гнойник страданий, ни на минуту не покидающий нас в промежутке между двумя бескрайними полосами чистого счастья.

He was a kind of éminence grise, a political leader, in a clandestine movement. Everyone knows there are girls who go for that kind of thing. There are girls who go for Huysmanists, for that matter. I once met a girl -- a pretty, attractive girl -- who told me she fantasized about Jean-François Copé. It took me several days to get over it. Really, with girls today, all bets are off.

They were really willing to pay to avoid any trouble. No doubt they had overestimated the ability of academics to make a nuisance of themselves. It had been years since an academic title gained you access to major media.... Even if all the university professors in France had risen up in protest, almost nobody would have noticed, but apparently they hadn't found that out in Saudi Arabia. They still believed, deep down, in the power of the intellectual elite. It was almost touching.

You have to take an interest in something in life, I told myself. I wondered what could interest me, now that I was finished with love. I could take a course in wine tasting, maybe, or start collecting model aeroplanes.

...intimacy isn't something men talk about. They may talk about politics, literature, stocks, or sports, depending on the man, but about their love lives they keep silent, even to their dying breath.

Intimacy isn’t something men talk about.

It's freezing in my place. I remember that earlier in the evening, just before leaving, I smashed a window with a blow of the fist. Yet, oddly, my hand is intact; no cuts.I lie down even so, and I sleep. The nightmares will only appear much later in the night. Not instantly recognizable as nightmares; even rather pleasant.

What about you, Michel, what are you going to do here?'The response closest to the truth was probably something like 'Nothing'; but it's always difficult to explain that kind of thing to an active person.

The response closest to the truth was probably something like 'Nothing'; but it's always difficult to explain that kind of thing to an active person.