Whatever Michel Houellebecq Quotes & Sayings

But it remains the case that, on the level of consumption, the preeminence of the twentieth century was indisputable: nothing. — Michel Houellebecq

DURING THE FIRST PART of your life, you only become aware of happiness once you have lost it. Then an age comes, a second one, in which you already know, at the moment when you begin to experience true happiness, that you are, at the end of the day, going to lose it. — Michel Houellebecq

The Americans are completely stupid. The intellectual level in any single European country is higher than in America. — Michel Houellebecq

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 ... — Michel Houellebecq

My novels are all ideas. — Michel Houellebecq

Life begins at fifty, that's true, inasmuch as it ends at forty. — Michel Houellebecq

I want to be loved despite my faults. It isn't exactly true that I'm a provocateur. A real provocateur is someone who says things he doesn't think, just to shock. I try to say what I think. — Michel Houellebecq

Anything can happen in life, especially nothing. — Michel Houellebecq

I hadn't seen any novel make the statement that entering the workforce was like entering the grave. That from then on, nothing happens and you have to pretend to be interested in your work. And, furthermore, that some people have a sex life and others don't just because some are more attractive than others. I wanted to acknowledge that if people don't have a sex life, it's not for some moral reason, it's just because they're ugly. Once you've said it,
it sounds obvious, but I wanted to say it. — Michel Houellebecq

His masterpiece was a dead end - but isn't that true of any masterpiece? — Michel Houellebecq

Islam is a dangerous religion. — Michel Houellebecq

When we think about the present, we veer wildly between the belief in chance and the evidence in favour of determinism. When we think about the past, however, it seems obvious that everything happened in the way that it was intended. — Michel Houellebecq

Jean-Yves looked up at his mother's face, her greying chignon, her harsh features: it was difficult to feel a rush of tenderness, of affection for this woman; as far back as he could remember, she had never really been one for hugs; it was equally difficult to imagine her in the role of a sensual lover, a slut. He suddenly realised that his father must have been bored shitless his whole life. He felt terribly shocked by this, his hands tensed on the edge of the table: this time it was irreparable, it was definitive. In despair, he tried to recall a moment when he had seen his father beaming, happy, genuinely glad to be alive. — Michel Houellebecq

Living together aklone is hell between consenting adults. — Michel Houellebecq

The beach at Meschers was crawling with wankers in shorts and bimbos in thongs. It was reassuring. — Michel Houellebecq

be fair, when I was young, the elections could not have been less interesting; the mediocrity of the 'political offerings' was almost surprising. A centre-left candidate would be elected, serve either one or two terms, depending how charismatic he was, then for obscure reasons he would fail to complete a third. When people got tired of that candidate, and the centre-left in general, we'd witness the phenomenon of democratic change, and the voters would install a candidate of the centre-right, also for one or two terms, depending on his personal appeal. Western nations took a strange pride in this system, though it amounted to little more than a power-sharing deal between two rival gangs, and they would even go to war to impose it on nations that failed to share their enthusiasm. — Michel Houellebecq

I feel as if things are falling apart within me,
like so many glass partitions shattering. I walk from place to place in the grip of a
fury, needing to act, yet can do nothing about it because any attempt seems doomed
in advance. Failure, everywhere failure. Only suicide hovers above me, gleaming and
inaccessible. — Michel Houellebecq

I think that if I am notorious, it is because other people have decided that this is how I should be. — Michel Houellebecq

What's amazing about Bayrou, what makes him irreplaceable," Tanneur enthused, "is that he's an utter moron. — Michel Houellebecq

If they can read in the eyes of a man an energy, a passion, then they find him attractive. — Michel Houellebecq

All I knew was that once again I found myself alone, with even less desire to live and nothing to look forward to but aggravations. — Michel Houellebecq

Like literature, music can overwhelm you with sudden emotion, can move you to absolute sorrow or ecstasy; like literature, painting has the power to astonish, and to make you see the world through fresh eyes. 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. — Michel Houellebecq

The great advantage of a novel is you can put in whatever comes into your head - it has the same shape as the human brain. — Michel Houellebecq

It was amazing, even, to think that the only thing left to people in their despair was reading. — Michel Houellebecq

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. Only literature can grant you access to a spirit from beyond the grave - a more direct, more complete, deeper access than you'd have in conversation with a friend. Even — Michel Houellebecq

There is no endless silence of infinite space, for in reality there is no space, no silence and no void. — Michel Houellebecq

It wasn't easy to cram your whole life into thirty kilos of luggage. — Michel Houellebecq

they argue that belief in a transcendent being conveys a genetic advantage: that couples who follow one of the three religions of the Book and maintain patriarchal values have more children than atheists or agnostics. You see less education among women, less hedonism and individualism. And to a large degree, this belief in transcendence can be passed on genetically. Conversions, or cases where people grow up to reject family values, are statistically insignificant. In the vast majority of cases, people stick with whatever metaphysical system they grow up in. That's why atheist humanism - the basis of any 'pluralist society' - is doomed. — Michel Houellebecq

People are suspicious of single men on vacation, after they get to a certain age: they assume that they're selfish, and probably a bit pervy. I can't say they're wrong. — Michel Houellebecq

Depressive lucidity, usually described as a radical withdrawal from ordinary human concerns, generally manifests itself by a profound indifference to things which are genuinely of minor interest. Thus it is possible to imagine a depressed lover, while the idea of a depressed patriot seems frankly inconceivable. — Michel Houellebecq

Those who love life do not read. Nor do they go to the movies, actually. No matter what might be said, access to the artistic universe is more or less entirely the preserve of those who are a little fed up with the world. — Michel Houellebecq

As a teenager, Michel believed that suffering conferred dignity on a person. Now he had to admit that he had been wrong. What conferred dignity on people was television. — Michel Houellebecq

The love of a dog is a pure thing. He gives you a trust which is total. You must not betray it. — Michel Houellebecq

Undoubtedly, the best way for a consumer to have a good time in the 2010s was to turn to Korean products: for a car, Kia and Hyundai; for electronics, LG and Samsung. — Michel Houellebecq

the tables were taken by law students talking about rave parties or 'junior associates', in other words, those things which interest law students — Michel Houellebecq

Now abideth beauty, truth, and intensity; but the greatest of these is intensity. — Michel Houellebecq

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

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